Moonrise Kingdom
by Laura Picken
Summary: The Guardians tackle their first case where our favorite author is drawing an NYPD paycheck. Can Castle rise to the challenge or will this case suck the life out of him? Continues the "Four Winds" series.
1. Chapter 1

Four Winds: Moonrise Kingdom  
A Castle Fantasy AU  
By Laura Picken

This story is in the continuing series of Castle fan fiction based on my fantasy alternate universe story "Four Winds". If you want to read the story, click on my author page, otherwise, here's a quick summary: Castle, Beckett, Lanie, Esposito and Ryan are struck by ball lighting in the loft on a dark and stormy poker night and wind up with superpowers: Ryan's a powerful telepath, Esposito can get your entire life story by shaking your hand, Beckett has five super-heightened senses and can speak to the dead, Lanie can heal the living by touch, and Castle's a wizard. There's other scattered abilities here and there, but that's the basic gist of it. Not freaked out by the concept yet? Then read on and enjoy :-).

For very loose timeline purposes, Castle fans can place this somewhere in the post-"Always" future: Castle and Beckett are a firmly established couple, Beckett's back on the force and Ryan has fought his way out of the doghouse. Season five might make it into the canon of this series if I'm still writing it in September, but right now I make no promises.

DISCLAIMER: Castle, Beckett, et al. are property of Andrew W. Marlowe and ABC. The legends described herein are inventions of my own twisted imagination and should not be taken to reflect the traditions of any particular group. All non-English language phrases are courtesy of Google Translate, so please forgive me if I get anything unintentionally wrong.

Okay, enough business, let the adventure begin!

* * *

The black Tesla cruised silently by the Intrepid and the cruise ships gleaming in the overnight light of the west side docks. While the driver let himself fantasize about midnight buffets and round-the-clock eating, he quickly set those thoughts aside. He was hungry *now*, which was why he was trolling the streets of Manhattan, looking for the perfect late-night snack to satisfy his cravings.

He briefly considered the tourist area around the Intrepid where a diligent, immigrant hot dog vendor was just packing up for the night, but the area was too exposed and there was just nowhere to park. Chelsea Piers? While the recreation area provided plenty of entertainment, there simply wasn't a good place to get a quiet bite to eat.

The driver turned around by the Holland Tunnel, enjoying the smells of Little Italy but remembering with a groan the heartburn he got every time he ate Italian. _Must be all that garlic, _he mused.

As he drove back uptown, the driver considered his options. Swedish? It was delicious last time he had it...sweet and savory with just the slightest hint of lingonberries. It also reminded him of Ikea, so he discarded the idea immediately and moved on. Japanese? It was always wonderfully fresh, but for some reason the last time left him with a fishy aftertaste for almost a week. Latin was a definite possibility...as long as it wasn't too spicy. Indian? The flavors were always lovely, he recalled, but since he had it the last time he ate, he was in the mood for something different.

He made a right on 34th street, slowing down to avoid hitting the nightclub traffic while allowing the local street vendors to come to him. The area was always mobbed at that time of night with beautiful, slightly sleazy looking young hipsters whose only desire was to make their way past the velvet rope. It was a perfect place for the street vendors to sell their wares, both to the club goers and to the people in the cars slowly moving through the high-traffic area. A quote from some celebrity traveling chef popped into the driver's head, and he smiled as he realized he was very much inclined to agree with the statement.

No matter where you were in the world, you almost always find the best food on the street.

A well-endowed African-American woman approached the car, her thigh-high stiletto boots clicking like castanets on the sidewalk. Ignoring the calls of "Hey, how about a freebie, it's my birthday!" from one of the other cars on the street, the woman threw her waist-length mane of chemically relaxed hair behind her as she waited for the Tesla's window to roll down. The action allowed the woman's...assets to introduce themselves. "Hey honey," she drawled with an accent that spoke of a childhood deep in the heart of Mississippi, "are you in the mood for some brown sugar this evenin'?"

_Brown sugar...yes. Yes, brown sugar would do quite nicely._

* * *

"Okay dad," Alexis declared as her father was finishing up his dish washing ritual, "Up for some practice tonight?"

Castle chuckled, shaking his head. "I should have known you weren't coming over for dinner just because you missed your old man. Do you have an idea in mind?"

Alexis was grinning from ear to ear as she jumped up from the table. She ran over to the loft's entrance and pulled over the item she had been dragging on a hand cart all the way from uptown. Stopping the handcart by the dining table, the girl then tried to lift the metal box from the cart...and failed miserably.

Kate took pity on her boyfriend's daughter immediately. "Need a hand with that, Lex?"

Alexis shook her head, still trying to catch her breath from her attempt to lift her painfully heavy cargo. "Now that...I'm thinking about it...it's probably better...if I just leave this thing...on the floor."

"So what's in the container, sweetheart?" Castle asked his daughter. Alexis unlocked and opened the container to reveal..."Wait a minute...sand? You dragged this box halfway across Manhattan to deliver sand."

Alexis nodded. "This test is to work on your ability to manipulate the elements on a smaller and more controlled scale than throwing lightning and fireballs all around Times Square."

Castle raised a skeptical eyebrow. "You want me to make sandcastles?"

"Nope," countered Alexis, shaking her head. "Glass."

"Glass?" Beckett asked.

Alexis nodded. "In nature, glass is created when lightning strikes sand. In manufacturing, however, the process is far more controlled, involving heating the sand up in giant tanks. My goal here, dad, is for you to do something in between, but on a smaller scale."

"Won't he get burned doing that?" asked Beckett.

"I don't think so," replied Alexis, shaking her head. "When we were in the Hamptons Lanie and I figured out that the energy that dad's manipulating when he casts his spells also regulates his body temperature."

Beckett rolled her eyes, finally getting an answer to one of their longer-standing arguments. "So *that's* why you're never cold!" she exclaimed.

Knowing better than to get in the middle of the teasing Kate and her father dealt out to each other, Alexis simply ignored the statement as she continued, "My working theory is that dad's body automatically makes the necessary adjustments so he can take whatever he dishes out."

"Probably makes sense for me to shield myself, though, just to be on the safe side?" asked Castle. Alexis nodded.

Castle thought the idea over carefully, trying to form an idea of the process in his mind. "Okay then," he declared, "let's give it a shot."

The wizard drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, taking the time to focus his mind and his energies on what he wanted to do. He then knelt down next to the container and gently placed his hands on the sand. The powder underneath his fingers glowed first orange, then yellow, then finally with the white heat needed for the granules to melt and merge with each other.

"Huh," commented Beckett as she watched her partner work on the sand. She shook her head for the second time, trying and failing to clear the extraneous information from her senses.

Alexis noticed Beckett's distracted state. "What is it, Kate?"

"It's...it's nothing," replied Beckett.

"I seriously doubt that," Alexis countered. "What is it?"

"It's just that when Castle was trying to heat the sand I...I saw this glow around his hand *before* he got started. I don't know, maybe I'm seeing things."

Castle pulled his hand away from the sand, cutting off the heat. Once he felt the temperature of his palms return to normal, he wiped the residual glass shards off his hand as he asked, "Was it my shield you saw?"

Beckett shook her head. "The shield is usually some derivative of blue in its glow. This...I can't even really *begin* to describe what color it was. It was like...all the colors at once. No...not all at once. The colors kind of swirled and popped around your hand. Like if you had thrown every possible color into a lava lamp and replaced the water with light."

"How far away from dad's hand could you see that glow, Kate?" asked Alexis. "Can you still see it now?"

"It was maybe three inches just before he started heating the sand," Beckett replied to Alexis' first question. When she thought about the second question, though, Beckett knew the answer was going to take a little more effort. "When I'm not looking directly at him and I just see him out of the corner of my eye...nope, don't see it."

Alexis asked the question Beckett knew was coming. "And if you focus on him?"

Beckett focused on her partner's hand, looking for the glow that she saw earlier. After a few moments of active concentration, though, she shook her head. "Nope. Don't see it."

Alexis considered Beckett's experience carefully. "What about...what if you look at the air *around* my dad? Like the way the air shimmers above the pavement when it's hot?"

Beckett took Alexis' advice, focusing on the space just above her boyfriend's hand...and gasped when the glow came back. "There...there it is again."

"How much of it do you see, Kate?" asked Alexis.

"Not nearly as thick a layer as before...quarter inch, maybe?" Beckett looked up from examining Castle's hand, playing a hunch, and studied the air *around* her boyfriend's head. "I can see it everywhere around him, but only if I *look* for it in the air, like you said."

Alexis didn't seem as shocked as Castle would have expected by this turn of events. "You know what this is, Lex."

It wasn't a question, and Alexis understood that her dad knew from her expression what her answer would have been. "Yep. Kate, I think what you're seeing is dad's aura."

"His *aura*?"

Alexis nodded. "I know, I know, it sounds kinda 'New Agey', but from what I can tell it's the easiest term to use to describe it. Eastern medicine talks about how chi not only flows through the body but around it as well. In many ways, I suspect that that chi energy is what fuels all of the Guardians' abilities...but *especially* dad's. And with your heightened eyesight, I suspected that the more you saw and the more open your mind came to seeing things outside the realm of what's normal..."

Beckett completed the thought. "The more likely I would be to start seeing them?"

"Yep," agreed Alexis. An idea rose in the girl's mind. "Hey, can you see my aura?"

"I'll give it a shot," replied Beckett. She opened her eyesight as far as she could and focused on the air surrounding Alexis. "I see something...kinda blue-green...but it's faint, and kinda hard to see...even for me. Sorry, Lex."

"Don't be," Alexis reassured her. "That's the answer I was expecting, more or less."

Castle found himself slightly confused. "It was?"

Alexis nodded. "From what I found online, aura reading is a kinda highly specialized skill to begin with. And everything I read made the whole thing feel like guided meditation rather than actually *seeing* anything...anyway, you guys *actively* manipulate so much chi on a regular basis that I suspected it would strengthen your auras to the point that they would be a lot easier to see than a normal person's."

Beckett took a minute to let the girl's run-on sentence sink in. "Okay, I get that...I think."

"For the moment, what it means is that Kevin and Javier need to meet us for a training session sooner rather than later. Now that you can do this I'd like to get a better idea of what their auras look like and if that can tell us anything new about their abilities."

"Yes, ma'am," Beckett saluted Alexis with a smile. "I'll make sure the boys know to report in asap, ma'am."

Alexis slapped Beckett playfully on the arm, knowing the older woman was teasing her. Her curiosity now satisfied where Beckett was concerned, Alexis' thoughts returned to her father and the results of the interrupted test. "You think the sand has cooled off enough yet?" she asked Beckett.

Beckett dialed back the sensitivity of her eyesight and opened up her touch to see if the temperature of the sand was anything dangerous. "Seems all right to me," she commented.

Alexis carefully dusted the sand off the glass, finding the bottom of the piece to be cool to the touch. She pulled the piece of glass out of the container slowly, making sure to avoid any hot spots and brush loose sand off the rest of the piece as she went. The result was about the size of a small dinner plate, but with hills, peaks, ridges and valleys that Alexis was finding fascinating. "Hey dad," she called out, "If you ever decide to stop writing you might be able to make a living making modern art out of glass."

"At least I'm not making it out of macaroni like you did in grade school..." Castle countered. The ring of a telephone interrupted any chance Alexis would have had to respond. Looking at the phone, Castle saw the precinct's contact label come up and called over to his girlfriend. "Kate! It's the precinct for you..."

"*I* don't have 'I'm sexy and I know it' as my ringtone, Rick..."

Both Castle and Beckett quickly realized what the incoming call meant. Castle grabbed his ringing phone and answered it before the song could repeat. "This is Rick Castle."

"Mr. Castle," responded the voice on the other end of the line, "assemble your team. A detective in Hell's Kitchen has requested your help."

Castle had to resist the urge to yelp into his phone with excitement. Trying to remain as composed as possible, he dutifully took down the address. "Yes captain, thank you. We'll be right there."

* * *

Alexis was on the phone the minute her dad and his girlfriend left for the crime scene. "It's me," she greeted the person on the other end of the line. "They just got the call. You got the stuff we talked about?"

A sly smile crept across Alexis' face as she got the affirmative response she was looking for. "Perfect."


	2. Chapter 2

"But it's my case!"

"*Our* case, Castle. Remember, I'm still the senior cop on this team. You're just a consultant."

"*Just* a consultant?! When Gates calls, she calls for me, remember?"

"Which means absolutely nothing when it comes to who's doing the driving."

Ryan and Esposito approached the squabbling couple with broad smiles. "Fun family dinner tonight at Chez Castle?" teased Esposito.

"Dinner was fine," replied Beckett. "Now the drive over, on the other hand..."

"Ha. Ha," countered Castle, rolling his eyes even as he smiled at his girlfriend. "Oh, one thing...Alexis wants to set up some training time for each of you with Beckett sometime soon."

This caught the curiosity of the other two Guardians. "Really?" asked Ryan. "Why?"

Beckett opened her mouth to speak, then closed it quickly, unable to give a rational sounding explanation for what she had experienced. Finally, she held a hand out to Esposito. "It'll be a lot easier if you guys see for yourself."

Ryan opened his mind to his partner's thoughts as Esposito touched Beckett's hand, downloading the memories of Castle's after-dinner training session. "Whoa..." exclaimed Esposito, "do you see that every time you look at Castle?"

"No," Beckett replied, shaking her head. "I have to really concentrate to see it, thank God. I think I'd get a headache looking at that all the time."

"Yeah, you ain't kidding," Esposito agreed.

"Say, what do we look like if you do that with us?" asked Ryan.

Beckett took in a deep breath and drew it out slowly. "All right, I'll give it a shot *if* you guys grab the images from my head when I'm done. It's just too hard to try and explain them."

Ryan and Esposito nodded their agreement. Beckett focused on Esposito first. "Yours isn't that much different from Castle's, to be honest," Beckett told them. She grabbed Esposito's hand, letting him download the image of his pure, golden aura with the multi-colored fireworks focused mostly in his hands. He chuckled lightly, amused by the way Beckett had seen him. "I think I might have seen a friend of mine like that in college when I was high on some bad pot," he teased.

Rolling her eyes, Beckett ignored Esposito's comment and chose to focus on Ryan's aura. The image was one of the most bizarre things Beckett had ever seen: her friend's aura was a riotous medusa of multi-colored snake-like energy ropes that seemed like they were only barely being held at bay. "My God," Beckett gasped out, "Ryan, you've got to see this..."

One of the tendrils of Ryan's aura reached out to her, brushing the side of her head gently before latching on with the sensation of the mental connection she recognized. Ryan gasped at the intensity of his own image and the surrounding aura he saw through Beckett's eyes. He cut the connection quickly, shaking his head to try and refocus his eyes back to reality. "And Alexis thinks seeing *that* is going to help us?" exclaimed Ryan. "How?!"

Now curious himself, Esposito grabbed his partner's hand, copying the image into his own mind. "Whoa..." he exclaimed, "and I thought mine was trippy..."

"I saw something when Ryan's mind connected with mine that time," Beckett told the group, "which makes me think Alexis may be on to something here. So will you guys call her?"

Ryan and Esposito nodded their heads in agreement. Castle nudged the group, "Now that that's settled, maybe we can get over to the crime scene?"

Beckett *wanted* to be annoyed at her boyfriend, but every time he rolled up onto the balls of his feet with excitement like that, she found it impossible not to smile. "All right, Castle," she told him patiently, "let's go see what they want our help with."

The group crossed the street and walked up the block, turning the corner where the police cruisers had the street blocked off. They stopped briefly at the tape marking off the scene where they were met by a dark-haired young man who had evidently been pacing the alleyway since he called the 12th for assistance. "Mr. Castle?" The eager young detective's suit practically crinkled as he reached out his hand to be shaken. "David Tyler, Midtown South homicide. Thank you for coming."

Castle tried to keep the eager excitement out of his own voice. "We're here to help, detective," he replied as he shook the man's hand. "My partner, Detective Beckett, Detectives Ryan and Esposito. What do you got?"

Tyler walked Castle and the team over to the main area of the crime scene, giving everyone the chance to snap on evidence gloves as they talked. "This is the third case we've gotten this month, Mr. Castle. Normally we wouldn't bring in a consultant just for a dead hooker, but..."

The way Tyler's voice trailed off with a shiver gave Castle pause. "But what, detective?"

"Well," Tyler replied, "you'll know when you take a look at the body."

The four Guardians looked down to see a corpse covered with a white sheet and a very annoyed medical examiner standing next to it. "Well, well, if it isn't Detective Kate Beckett and her Scooby Gang from the 12th." Sidney Perlmutter rolled his eyes, wishing, as usual, that Dr. Parrish had gotten the case so he wouldn't have to deal with that smart-mouthed crime novelist he so dreaded seeing. _Although, come to think of it..._"What brings you guys all the way up to midtown?"

"I called the 12th and asked for Mr. Castle's assistance," Tyler replied for the Guardians. "Can you show them what we've been dealing with, doctor?"

Perlmutter let out a prolonged sigh, then rolled down the sheet to the victim's waist. The woman looked like she had been African-American in life...at least, if the texture of her hair was any sort of an indicator. "Her name was Monique Harrelson. Driver's license *says* she was 25," said Tyler.

Castle let out a quick whistle, surprised by the number, "She lived pretty hard for 25..."

"That skin color's not the result of how she lived," Perlmutter told them. Turning the victim so the left side of her neck was exposed, the doctor declared solemnly, "it's because of how she died."

The four Guardians stared at the marks on the body's neck, fascinated. No matter how many times they had seen something similar on TV, or in the movies, or in their imaginations when they read or heard a scary story, it hadn't quite prepared them to see the two puncture wounds at the base of the girl's neck. Castle's natural curiosity gave him the strength to be the first to form the question that was on all of their minds. "Is that...?"

Perlmutter rolled his eyes again, annoyed that he was going to have to have this argument *again*. "It's not a vampire bite," he replied.

Tyler jumped in immediately. "Then what is it? This is the third girl in almost three weeks, Perlmutter, and all you can tell me is that you're still..."

"Running tests, Tyler," Perlmutter cut the eager young detective off quickly. "And I am. When I get the results back, I'll get them to..."

"Oh, bull!" spat out Tyler. "You could have gotten those results to me two days after the first body dropped. You're just stalling out of some misguided need to save your professional..."

"Gentlemen!" exclaimed Beckett, breaking off the fight before it got uglier. "Ryan, Esposito, go talk to the witnesses and see what you can get from them. Detective Tyler, I'd like the files on the other two cases sent to the 12th precinct as soon as you can?"

The three detectives took their respective assignments and quickly moved away from the body to get them done. Beckett then turned to the cranky medical examiner. "Doctor Perlmutter, would it be possible for you to bring me up to speed?"

"No signs of assault, sexual or otherwise. Lots of signs of recent sexual activity, but nothing at a level that would be considered out of the ordinary for someone in her profession."

"And the puncture marks?" asked Beckett.

Perlmutter hesitated, knowing he couldn't use the 'still running tests' excuse on the woman whose best friend was his fellow ME and whose boyfriend had connections to the mayor. "My preliminary estimation is that they were caused by some sort of...animal bite. Specifically, two oversize canine teeth."

Beckett gave the ME the out he was looking for. "High-end veneers?"

"Possibly," replied Permutter with a slight tone of relief in his voice.

Castle took the out right back. "What about blood? Outside of the body looks clean."

Perlmutter let out a long sigh, knowing there was no way he was going to be able to get around it. "None. Body's been completely drained."

Castle clamped down on his knuckle fighting as hard as he could to *not* scream out in excitement. He finally allowed himself to blurt out, "But it's not a vampire?"

"There's no such thing as vampires, Castle!" exclaimed Perlmutter, getting angrier by the minute. _Questions like these are why I've kept my dealings with the 12th to a minimum... _

Beckett stepped in to defuse the situation. "Doctor Perlmutter, is there any evidence of surgical tubing, anything that could have been used to siphon off the blood once the skin was first broken?"

"No, sorry," replied Perlmutter, shaking his head.

"Were the puncture wounds this clean on the first two victims?" asked Castle. "Was there any smearing of blood around the wounds, maybe indicating that the killer cleaned up after himself?"

Perlmutter shook his head again. "Luminol tests on the first two victims came up clean, as well."

Beckett knelt down next to the body. Opening up her senses one by one, she immediately picked up a scent on the body that was unusual. Sniffing around the body, Beckett narrowed down the location of the smell's source to be the skin around and especially *between* the two holes. "There's a residue around the puncture wounds," thought Beckett out loud. "It smells kind of...sweet."

_Sweet? _thought Perlmutter, having found no such residue on the victim herself or on the other two girls. _Still, with so little to go on..._"I'll do some tests when I get her back to the lab."

Beckett and Castle stood up, allowing the medical examiner to return to his work. "Thanks, doc," she told Perlmutter, "anything you can give us would be helpful."

"Yeah, yeah," he grumbled, already having had more than his fill of the 12th precinct for the week.

Castle led his partner away from the body. "Do *you* think this can't possibly be a vampire, Kate?"

"I speak to ghosts on a regular basis and my wizard boyfriend and I have helped to slay dragons in the middle of Times Square," replied Beckett in a half-whisper. "I gave up the idea that myths and legends weren't ever real a *long* time ago."

Castle smiled warmly, "Brilliant as ever, my dear detective..."

The couple found Ryan and Esposito, who seemed to be shaking their heads in disappointment over the results of their interviews. "Guys," asked Beckett, "what did you get?"

"Not much, I'm afraid," replied Ryan with a weary sigh. "There's probably half a dozen girls who work this block. They all knew Monique, and they all remembered seeing her earlier tonight. But not a single one of them remembers seeing her past 9 pm."

"Were they just distracted at 9 pm?" asked Castle. "This is a pretty crowded street with the club and all, maybe they just got so busy..."

"No, that's just it," Esposito insisted. "Their memories all come back after about 10 after 9 or so. They all remembered being in front of the club and who they were with for the rest of the night. But that 10 minutes...they don't remember any of it."

"Even with...?" Beckett waved her hand in a spinning motion, a gesture that had come to mean all things wild and 'spooky' between them.

"Yes, even with that," replied Esposito, rolling his eyes even as he repeated the gesture. "They're not just saying they don't remember. The memories *aren't there*. From about 9:00 to 9:10 last night, it's like there's a blank spot in their heads."

Castle was still working off the vampire theory. "Ryan, could it be possible that someone or something messed with those ten minutes in the minds of our witnesses?"

Ryan nodded. "It's not only possible, my guess is it's pretty likely. If there had been some sort of attack where these women were knocked unconscious we would have more evidence of that. Plus, they all wouldn't have been knocked out for *exactly* ten minutes. My guess is the women saw something and the memory was wiped from their minds after the fact."

"Is there any way you can work on *any* of the witnesses to try and get that time back?" asked Beckett.

Ryan and Esposito could only shrug their shoulders in response.

* * *

**Hi all! Don't forget, all comments, questions, snide remarks...all responses are very much appreciated!**


	3. Chapter 3

Getting on the elevator after Ryan and Esposito allowed Beckett and Castle the chance to collect their own thoughts before going to the empty murderboard and starting to put down their thoughts on any new case.

It also gave them the occasional opportunity to argue without the 'kids' watching. "Castle, what is with you today?" asked Beckett. "Why do you want to start micromanaging *this* case? From the minute we got in the car you were all 'Ryan should do this' and 'Oh, we should have Esposito do this' and 'I wonder if we can talk Lanie into stealing Perlmutter's files...' And even though we just got a *vampire* case, you haven't said a thing about Dracula, or Vlad the Impaler or even Morgan Lockerby all the way here. You just don't seem like yourself today. What gives?"

Castle leaned against the back wall of the elevator, knocking his head against the back wall. He closed his eyes and let out a nervous sigh. "It's Gates."

"Gates?"

"How long has it been since you came back from your shooting?"

Beckett quickly did the math in her head. "Almost a year, why?"

"And in that time, despite *all* my best efforts, what has Gates' opinion of me been?"

"She barely tolerates you."

Castle nodded. "And when she put this little deal together, I finally found out why. Kate, she was absolutely right. I *have* used my relationships to keep this gig so I could stay close to you. First with Bob, then with Roy, then with Bob again..."

Beckett covered one of Castle's hands with her own and squeezed it for support. "And now...?"

"And now this whole Guardian thing has given me a chance to prove that I'm not just some lazy playboy crime novelist who's milking his connections to entertain himself. I finally have a chance to prove to her that I belong here. That my being here makes a difference. That I'm not just a shadow, I'm..."

"My partner?" Beckett finished his sentence with a smile. "And you *will*. Not by taking the lead and jumping all over every facet of this case, but by doing what you've been doing since the day I dragged you into the precinct."

"Sharing the insights of my brilliant mind?" Castle added with his own devilish smirk.

Beckett was fully prepared with a comeback. "And I'll sort through the tangled mass of crazy theories that brilliant mind spits out until we find the truth." She then added with a wink, "It's why we work so well together."

The couple were still smiling as the elevator doors opened. Castle dutifully followed his partner to her desk, coats and coffee cups in hand...

...only to find his chair gone. *His*chair. The one where he sat for days on end, watching his partner do paperwork, or research, or working up theories along side her. Castle put the two cups of coffee on Beckett's desk and hung up their coats...all the while scanning the room for where *his*chair might have gone.

Beckett simply stood by her desk, watching the amusing scene unfold before him. "Uh, Castle..."

"Not now, Beckett!" Castle cut her off sharply. "Some overeager uniform has taken my chair and I need to find out where they put it."

"Castle..."

The writer's level of confusion was starting to attract attention, and not just from his partner. Captain Gates watched as her entire bullpen was growing increasingly more distracted by the man's unnecessary panic. After about five minutes of letting everyone be entertained at Castle's expense, though, she decided to stop the show once and for all. In her most demanding and authoritative voice, Gates boomed out, "Mister Castle, for someone who has made his living by observing and telling stories based on the world around him, you seem to have a terrible eye for detail."

Castle looked up from his preoccupation with finding his chair, startled back into the present by the hard-edged voice of his captain.

And it was then that he finally noticed it. On the desk directly across from Beckett was a nameplate. And on that nameplate was a very familiar name.

His own.

Beckett allowed herself the brief luxury of giving her boyfriend a hug in the bullpen. "Congratulations, Castle," she told him, "*now* it's official."

The genuine excitement on Castle's face was obvious. "I have a desk now? My own desk?" he exclaimed. Castle pulled out his chair to sit down and get used to the idea of having his own desk...when he came upon his second surprise of the morning.

Beckett watched her partner's face grow in amazement at whatever it was he found in his chair. "Castle? What is it?"

Castle nearly jumped at his partner's question, then pulled up the two gifts on his chair with child-like glee. "It's a Green Lantern backpack...with my name embroidered on it, no less...and a matching lunchbox." He unzipped the backpack, pulling out pens, pencils, notepads...and a chocolate badge wrapped in gold foil. The 'badge' had a piece of paper taped to the back of it.

"What's the note say?" asked Beckett.

Castle's smile switched from child-like glee to warm paternal pride so quickly Beckett could have sworn she almost saw his aura flash. He bit into the badge, swallowing the first bite before reading the note, "Knock 'em dead, dad. Love, Alexis."

Taking the chocolate that Castle offered her, Beckett took a bite and let her own smile grow wider as she asked, "So, did Alexis pack you lunch?"

Castle opened the box, smiling as he recognized his favorite childhood meal. "Not Alexis. Mother."

"How do you know it was your mom who made it?" asked Ryan, looking over Castle's shoulder at the contents of the lunchbox.

Picking up the thermos, Esposito opened the bottle and sniffed at the contents, recoiling at their...strength. "Only Martha would have packed *that* in a Green Lantern lunchbox."

Finding a note at the bottom of the lunchbox, Castle pulled out the paper and read it aloud. "Have a good day, be nice to the teacher and don't let the big kids bully you. Love, Mom"

"Your daughter dropped those off early this morning," Gates spoke up behind them. "Charming girl...how she got to be so *polite* with you as her father I'll never know."

The three detectives jumped to attention immediately. "Sir," they greeted their boss in unison.

"At ease, everyone," Gates told them. "I just wanted to get an update on this case Midtown South has requested our help with."

Ryan taped three mugshots to the white dry erase board. "Monique Harrelson, Julie Benson, and 'Candy' Klingermann. All three women were prostitutes, all three died the same way." As he taped three more shots of the girls' corpses to the murder board, Ryan continued, "all three women were completely drained of blood through two puncture holes to the neck. Cause of death...exsanguination."

Gates asked, "Did these three women have anything in common besides their...profession?"

"No, sir," Esposito replied. "According to the files, they don't have any friends in common, and according to Mid South Vice, they worked completely different areas of town."

"Let's double-check Mid South's work, see if they missed anything. Even if they didn't work in the same professional circles, they might have met each other on our side of the law."

Esposito nodded his agreement, "Yes, sir."

Gates then asked, "how were the puncture marks made?"

The group hesitated, unsure of how their captain would react to the answer to her question. Beckett took the initiative the others seemed to be lacking. "According to Dr. Perlmutter, the punctures were made from a set of oversize canine teeth."

Gates' eyes widened briefly before returning to her professional demeanor. "Do the bite marks match up? Are we only dealing with one of...whatever this is?"

"According to Dr. Perlmutter, the bites are similar in size and shape," replied Beckett.

"So are we dealing with one attacker? Perhaps a wild snake, or some other animal?" Gates pushed.

Beckett hesitated for a split second before answering. "I can't be a hundred percent sure without examining the other two bodies, but I'm leaning toward a single attacker."

"Guys, come on, it's a *vampire*," Castle declared matter-of-factly. "Textbook. Let's call a spade a spade here."

Gates tried to blow off the idea that the rest of the group around seemed to be in total agreement with. "But vampires don't..." She cut off her own thought when she remembered the company she was now keeping. "*Do* vampires exist, Castle?"

"We can't say for sure yet either way, sir," Ryan replied.

"But...the evidence is pointing that way," Gates countered.

"Or, at least, the killer wants us to *think* it's vampires..." Castle told Gates, leading Beckett's thoughts down a familiar path.

Beckett didn't need an open mind link to know what Castle was thinking. "The Freeman case."

"Freeman case?" asks Gates, confused. "You've dealt with a vampire's victims before?"

Beckett shook her head. "No, but we *did* have a case a couple of years ago where the vic was heavily into the vampire subculture..."

Castle caught on instantly, "So real vampire or not, maybe our guy is hiding in plain sight?"

Beckett nodded. "Maybe if we work some of the contacts from that case, they'll remember our guy casually and know where we can find him. Castle and I will talk to the dentist and you guys will pay a visit to Mistress Vixen?"

Ryan and Esposito nodded, signaling the end of the meeting. As Gates stood up, she tilted her head down toward Castle's. "Aren't you supposed to bring an apple for the teacher on the first day of school?" she teased.

Castle didn't miss a beat as he replied, smiling, "Check your desk, captain."

Curious, Captain Gates opened the door to her office...

...and found a shiny red delicious apple sitting on top of a pile of paperwork. Smiling, she tossed the apple in the air, catching it in the same hand before taking one crisp, sweet, juicy, all-too-perfect bite. _One thing's for sure, _thought Gates, _having a wizard around is always going to keep things interesting..._

* * *

**Hi all! This chapter's short, I know. Next one probably will be too. I've got a character to introduce at the end of the next chapter, and this character may need a lot of attention to do them any justice, so I want to get these out of the way and into your hot little inboxes. :D**

**And don't forget to feed the writer! She needs lots and lots of comments!  
**


	4. Chapter 4

"Come on, you already have one tattoo, what's a couple more?"

Beckett rolled her eyes for the fifth time since they had left the precinct. Ever since she told Castle that they were coming to see Dr. Frank, the writer was acting like a 5 year-old who had just been told he was going to McDonald's for lunch. "No, Castle," she repeated, patiently, "we are just going to talk to the man about the bite marks, get his opinions and be on our way. I am not, repeat, *not* going to get a 'real Nikki Heat' tattoo..."

Castle pouted like a 5 year-old who had just been told he could get a happy meal but had to give up the toy as punishment. His eyes quickly lit up again, though, when he considered all the things that Beckett had *not* said. Castle shot off a barrage of quick questions. "What about a heart with my name in it? Flames? Skull and crossbones? What about getting something pierced?"

Beckett let out a low warning that she was losing her patience...quickly. "Castle..."

The writer backed off, hands up in surrender, instinctively understanding that his girlfriend had hit her limit. He then proved that, when it came down to it, Castle actually *didn't* know when to quit. "What about a tiger? Ooh, or *both* the tigers..."

Beckett stopped all forward progress through the store and grabbed her partner by the lapels. "Richard Castle," she growled, "You are a fully salaried member of the NYPD now and I *suggest* you start acting like it!" Now that her boyfriend was thoroughly chastised, Beckett pulled him closer to her and whispered seductively in his ear, "and if you *can* get through this meeting professionally, maybe I'll let you buy me that slutty nurse's outfit..."

Humbled, corrected, confused, and slightly aroused, Castle composed himself quickly and followed his partner over to the registers in front of the dentist's office.

Dr. Barry Frank strolled out of his office behind the red curtains, pleasantly surprised to see the man who awaited him on the other side. "Richard Castle! Good to see you, as always. It's a little early to be planning next Halloween's big bash, though, isn't it?"

"Sorry doc, this one's police business again. We could use your help on another murder," replied Castle.

Frank's tone quickly turned serious. "Not another one of my patients, I hope?"

Beckett shook her head. "The victims wouldn't have been patients of yours, Dr. Frank. The killer, though, we think might have been." She laid out the three photos of the victims' bite marks on the counter. "Doctor, would someone wearing a set of veneers be capable of causing this kind of bite mark on a person?"

The dentist studied the three pictures carefully. Beckett could just barely make out the quickening of Dr. Frank's heartbeat and the shortening of his breaths even without focusing intently on them. It took a moment of tense silence for the man to get himself under enough control to answer the question. "Detective...Beckett?" When Beckett nodded to indicate that Frank had gotten her name correct, he continued, "I wish I could be of more help to you here, detective, but these bite marks can't have been made by someone wearing veneers. At least, not my veneers, anyway."

"Why not?" asked Beckett.

"My veneers are purely for cosmetic purposes, detective...maybe a little blood play at the most. Puncturing the jugular vain takes *work*. Especially to go this deep. And you'd make a hell of a mess if you didn't know exactly what you were doing. Which is why most sanguinarians prefer to use the wrist...it gives you more control over how much blood you can take from a live, willing victim."

Beckett asked, "So why bite the neck if you're just looking for a small quantity of blood?"

Dr. Frank shook his head. "That's exactly the point: you wouldn't go anywhere *near* the neck. The reason a vampire goes for the jugular, if you'll pardon the expression, is that it makes the victim bleed out quickly. He can get his fill and move on, leaving only the corpse behind."

"We didn't find any blood at the crime scene, doctor. *Any* blood," commented Beckett.

"Then you're not looking for just any basic practitioner. You're looking for someone who had a desperate thirst when they attacked. The human body contains six quarts of blood, detective. A gallon and a half of any liquid is a hell of a lot for *anyone* to drink in one sitting unless they were practically starving for it."

"Do you know anyone who might be that...passionate about the lifestyle, doctor?" asked Beckett.

Dr. Frank shook his head again. "I'm like any other good cosmetic surgeon, detective. If I'm treating a patient who wants fangs for anything other than...entertainment purposes, I decline treatment immediately and try to help them get the mental help they need. So, to answer your question, no. None of my patients fit the profile of the guy you're looking for. And besides, you couldn't use my veneers to do this, at any rate."

"Why not?" asked Castle.

Frank replied, "They wouldn't go down far enough. You'd catch the external jugular vein with my veneers since that's so close to the skin, but you couldn't get down to the internal vein without ripping out large chunks of flesh. The bite mark left behind wouldn't be nearly this precise or clean."

"So what are we talking about here, doctor?" asked Beckett, knowing that everyone looking at that photo already knew that answer.

"I'm pretty sure the teeth that made these marks are natural ones, detective," replied Dr. Frank, his eyes never leaving the photograph. "Whoever bit down on this woman was looking to take every drop of blood and take it quickly."

"You mean whatever, not whoever, right?" Castle asked the dentist, giving him another out.

Dr. Frank looked up at the faces of Castle and Beckett, confident that the two people in front of him *knew* they were looking for a 'who' and not a 'what'. They just wanted to see if *he* knew it. "Right," Frank returned, as offhand as he could make the comment sound. "Whatever. Of course I meant whatever..."

Once Castle and Beckett thanked the dentist and left, Dr. Frank pinched the bridge of his nose to try and fight off the headache that was starting to form behind his eyes. "Angelique!" he called out to the receptionist behind the red curtains, "call all my...late-night appointments...and ask them to reschedule, please." To no one in particular, Dr. Frank then commented, "I'm suddenly feeling the need to make sure I'm home when the sun goes down tonight..."

* * *

Esposito let out a low whistle as he took in the Den of Iniquity's low lighting and dark atmosphere. "Man, bro, this place feels a little like S&M meets steam punk meet meets..." the detective's trail of thought stopped for a minute as a blond in a French maid's uniform and fang veneers crossed his path. "Rocky Horror Picture Show. You used to hang out in places like this?"

"Not very often," Ryan replied with an offhand shrug. "We met outside the club scene and she didn't bring me to a club until about six months after we were dating. After that, we'd come in every once in a while for drinks after a show or an opera, things like that..."

"What," joked Esposito, "do they make a great Bloody Mary or something?" When Ryan simply glared at him, Esposito decided to switch gears by laughing at himself and their current circumstances. "My friend, you are *far* more open minded that I have *ever* given you credit for."

Ryan decided to simply ignore his partner's teasing as he made his way through the club. When he made his way to the club owner's bodyguard, Ryan flashed his badge and announced, "Detectives Ryan and Esposito. We're requesting an audience with Mistress Vixen."

The sea of people parted for the two detectives, and Vampire Mistress Vixen's face quickly returned to a business-like posture. She got up from her chaise, pushed away the man whose blood she was enjoying and wiped the red liquid off of her fangs as best she could. One thing that Crow's death had taught her was that if someone came into her coven from the NYPD, they weren't to be taken lightly. "Good evening, detectives," she greeted them, her smile just revealing her blood-smeared fangs. "How can I help you today?"

Esposito began the interview, "We're looking for someone who has attacked several women over the past month. Someone who we think would believe himself to be a full vampire, like Morgan Lockerby did."

Ryan then asked her, "Have you had anyone in your coven lately who might have started to take their blood play a little too seriously? Or perhaps an applicant who creeped you out, so you rejected him?"

"No, sorry," Vixen replied, shaking her head. "I haven't dealt with anyone like that lately. I wish I could be of more help, but my members are clear and healthy as far as I know right now."

Ryan probed into Vixen's mind gently, opening his thoughts to catch the results of his next question. "I know that this is going to sound strange, but have you had any stretches of time lately where you can't remember where you were or what you did? It can be as little as ten minutes, but please, try to remember..."

A wash of memories flooded his mind, including several spots in the past week where Vixen's memories had, indeed, gone blank. Out loud, though, the club owner shook her head again as she replied, "I can't think of anything. But detectives, you are both welcome to stay and talk to any members who are willing to help you if you'd like."

"Thank you for your time, Vixen," Ryan responded with a gentle sigh, concluding the interview. He handed a business card out to the woman, "if you can think of anything that might help us with this case, please let us know."

Esposito had tuned out of the end of the brief interview. Instead, he let his focus and attention wander, taking in the details of the dark club and the people involved in various degrees of intimate blood play. It was then that a swish of dark silken hair caught his eye. He watched the woman from across the room, hoping for just a peek at the beautiful face that, he knew, had to belong a woman with such gorgeous hair. And when he finally caught a glimpse of that face, it did anything but disappoint. Her porcelain skin, her dark, mysterious eyes, her utterly kissable ruby lips...Esposito was completely entranced. He followed the woman without even thinking about putting one foot in front of the other, because all he could think about...all he knew...was that he had to find out what those lips tasted like...

Ryan walked with his partner, waving his hand in front of the man's face...only to find Esposito unresponsive to any attempt to get his attention. "Javi?" Ryan finally asked, "You okay, man?"

Esposito stared off in the distance, his attention consumed by the woman whose beauty was rapidly filling his heart like nothing he'd ever felt in his life. "Look at her, Ryan," Esposito whispered longingly, "Isn't she the most incredible thing you've ever seen?"

Ryan followed his partner's line of sight to see who was making the tough ex-Special Forces cop babble on like an idiot...then wheeled back around quickly, averting any and all temptation to look at the woman as soon as he recognized her. _Dear God in heaven help me, but when the hell did *she* get back into town? _Ryan forced himself to focus all of his attention on his partner, understanding quickly that this had now become just as much of a struggle for his partner's life as it would have been if bullets were flying past their heads. He then tackled his partner, staring him down with an intensity that anyone *other* than Esposito might have found terrifying. Grabbing the stronger man by the shoulders, Ryan forced Esposito to look *him* in the eye instead of *her*. "Javi, I'm telling you, do *not* go after that woman. Hell, don't even talk to her. Don't even *look* at her."

Esposito started pouting like a five year old who had just been told he couldn't have his favorite toy. "But why...?" he whined.

_Damn it, she's got her hooks in him already, _thought Ryan. He pushed deep into his partner's memory with one goal: to scrub it clean of any attraction to *her*. Ryan then re-focused his mind, working to refill Esposito's thoughts with thoughts of the one woman he knew that his partner cared about more than any other. _Javi, You *have* a girlfriend, remember? Remember how much you care about *her*? How *hurt* she would be if you went off with another girl?_

Esposito shook his head as if to clear the cobwebs from his brain. His eyes became actively focused on Ryan, who looked relieved. "Thanks, bro. I don't know what got into me..."

"I do..." Ryan muttered under his breath. He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, focusing all of his energy on his memories of his wife and their child to be. Ryan knew that he had to come up with some way to not be seduced by the charms of the woman in front of him. Kevin had been drawn in to her heart once, many years ago, and narrowly escaped being consumed by her entirely.

The Guardian turned and crossed the room, partner in tow. _Javi, _projected Ryan down the mind-link, _keep all of your focus on Lanie, the job, last season's Yankees stats, this season's Knicks stats...*anything* but the woman in front of you. Just for the next couple of minutes. I should be able to do the talking...I hope..._

_Kev, _asked Esposito, now intensely confused, _what's going on here..._

Ryan cut his partner off through the mind-link. _Just...trust me on this one, okay? I promise I'll explain everything in a few minutes. But for now...you've got the lifetimes of a couple dozen people stored in that head of yours. It's time to pull those cards out and use 'em._

The Guardian drew in another deep breath, letting it out slowly to further intensify his focus. He then put himself face to face with the one woman that Ryan knew, if he let his guard down for even a split second, could not only ruin his life...but end it completely.

"Hello, Katya."

* * *

**Hi all! Okay, so this chapter was a *little* longer than the quickie I thought it was going to be. So what do you think? Don't forget to post comments! Remember, lots of comments makes for a happy writer, and happy writers write faster!**


	5. Chapter 5

Katya took a step back, overwhelmed by both the emotion of the moment and the power of the aura that was now radiating from the man she once called her precious golden jewel..."Hello, Kevin," she greeted Ryan, forcing herself to choke back the tears that threatened to flow even now, "it's been a long time. Far too long."

Ryan's aura flickered, just for a second, as the pure sincerity of the emotions of the woman before him cracked his defenses. It was then, in that flash, that he realized that Katya, she who had once been his dark queen, no longer held the sway over him that she once did. _But then, how did Javi..._

_It is all right, beloved, _the familiar voice projected into *his* mind, _once I recognized you, I abandoned my search for a lover for tonight. Your friend is safe now. Besides, I could not have him even if I had wanted to._

The absurdity of Katya's statement shocked him out of the mind-link and all but obliterated his mental defenses. "You *can't*?" Ryan asked, "Why not?"

_Because, beloved, _Katya projected back through the mind-link, _the blessing that anointed you as a Guardian now protects you from me as well. One drop of the Xiānzhī's blood on my lips would be as if I had consumed the sun itself. I could seduce him...as I can any human. But I cannot have him. Or you, for that matter. So why waste my time?_

Ryan's eyes threatened to pop out of their sockets, surprised and shocked as he was to not only be having this conversation, but also by the information he had obtained *from* the conversation itself. All Ryan seemed to be able to gasp out as he looked at her was "Really? Wow..."

Esposito cleared his throat for the third time, trying to get his partner's attention. When Ryan finally made eye contact with him, Esposito asked, "Um, Kevin...aren't you going to introduce me to your friend here?"

Ryan shook his head for a second, forcing himself back into the physical reality. Then, remembering how he had 'talked' to Katya, Ryan connected the three of them through a fresh mind link under his control. _Katya, this is my partner, Detective Javier Esposito. Javi, I'd like you to meet my ex-girlfriend Ekaterina Petrovich, the vampire._

_It is a pleasure to meet you, honored Xiānzhī, _Katya greeted Esposito through the mind-link. _My friends call me Katya. I hope you that will choose do so as well._

Esposito blinked and shook own his head a couple of times, trying to shake off the confusion going through his mind and the feeling that somehow, somewhere, he had missed a hell of a lot more than just a memo. _It's nice to meet you, Katya, _projected Esposito politely through the group mind link. Esposito then returned his attentions to his partner...where he wasn't nearly so polite. _Bro, what the hell...?_

_I can see that you have questions, honored Xiānzhī, _Katya replied calmly, interrupting the beginnings of Esposito's tirade. _If you'd like, I will try to answer them._

_It's nice that you're trying to help, Katya, _Esposito replied through the mind-link with forced politeness, _but I mostly need to talk to my partner. _Turning back to said partner, Esposito projected to both of them, _And find out why the hell he would tell anyone about this without getting permission from the others affected by it *first*..._

Katya looked at the two men, confused. _Honored Xiānzhī, Kevin did not *say* anything to me. He did not have to. Your auras give your status away to anyone who has the ability to read such things..._

Esposito was even more confused. _Our auras? You mean the stuff Beckett showed us last night?_

Katya found herself having to resist the urge to roll her eyes. _Forgive me, honored Xiānzhī, I keep forgetting how new you must be to your abilities, giving the timing of when I knew Kevin before and seeing the two of you now. But yes, my kind can read auras quite well, just like this Beckett apparently can. That is how I knew you were the Zhànshì Xiānzhī, just like I know my darling Kevin is now the Zhànshì Mùshī, the other side of the Shuāng jiàn._

_How *do* you know about the Guardians, Katya? _asked Ryan, now curious himself. _Is this something all of your kind know about?_

Katya shook her head. _I had the luxury of living under the protection of the Guardians for...almost a century, if I'm doing the math correctly..._

_A *century*?! _Esposito exclaimed, dumbstruck.

Katya simply shrugged in response. _Perhaps you would like to see for yourself, honored Xiānzhī?_

Esposito held the delicate hand as it was offered to him, and nearly fell to his knees under the crushing mental weight of absorbing so many memories at once. Ryan felt the tug on his own mind and freely widened the connection between himself and his partner, pouring energy through the link to help Esposito with what he was trying to do.

Finally, Esposito had all of Katya's memories collected and stored properly in his head. _Wow, _he exclaimed through the mind link, _I haven't had to fight like that since I shook Tenzin's hand and he was..._Esposito picked up the common link between the two people immediately. _Tenzin was 450 years old._

Katya seemed pleasantly surprised at the mention of the name of an old, familiar friend. _So they kept Tenzin on, eh? How is the eager little beaver?_

_He, uh, _Ryan hesitated, not knowing how to pass on the news. _He died a few months ago, Katya, I'm sorry._

Katya's reply was short and spoke of a haunted weariness. _Oh. Such is life, I suppose. I have said goodbye to far too many friends in my lifetimes...as will you._

Esposito was still trying to wrap his head around the content of their conversation...reinforced as it was from the overwhelming flood of memories that Katya had just shared with him. _You're a vampire?_

_Yes, _replied Katya simply.

_And not one of these...'blood players' like the people around us right now. You're a *real* vampire? _Katya nodded again.

Esposito quickly played through the memories of the...vampire before him going back the past few weeks. _You don't...kill humans for food?_

_No, _replied Katya quickly and forcefully. She seemed to be gearing up for a round of questions-and-answers that she had endured thousands of times before. _When the industrial age brought the mass production of meats to market, blood of all kinds had become available in vast quantities. More than enough to satisfy even my kind's almost-unquenchable thirst. The great majority of my kind have adapted to animal blood so that we can move freely in modern society. I prefer cow's blood, myself. But to each his own...For my kind human blood is now considered something of a treat...much the way you might consider wine, beer, or other alcoholic spirits._

_And you take from people in covens like this? Who freely give their consent? _asked Esposito.

Katya nodded. _Most of the time I might change...details about the encounter in order to preserve the secret of what I am. Although they will remember that they gave their blood freely, and that they...enjoyed themselves very much._

Esposito surprised Katya by not asking her any more direct questions. Instead, the detective turned back to his partner. _And exactly how long have you two known each other?_

Ryan started to do the math in his head, but was stopped simply from the fact that Katya could do the calculations better than he ever could. She told Esposito, _We met roughly eight years ago and dated for about four years. It's been almost that long since we last saw each other._

Esposito continued to lob his questions directly at his partner. _And how long have you known she was a *real* vampire?_

_I figured she was a 'lifestyler' for two years, I think. When I figured it out I was already so in love with her I could barely think straight..._Katya let out an audible gasp as old and painful emotions rose back to the surface of her mind as well. Ryan squeezed her hand in support, then let it go before continuing, _I think it took me two years to figure out that I *needed* to break up with her. That, no matter how much I loved her, that we just weren't meant to be._

_So she *is* the girl you called to get Beckett and Castle in here during the Freeman case? _

It was only a half-question, and Ryan nodded in response. _And now you know why I was so adamant about not sleeping with her. _Katya raised an smirking eyebrow at Ryan's last statement, which he simply blew off with _I'll explain later. _Ryan soon realized, though, that there was another question that *did* need to be asked. And soon. _Katya, _he began, _Detective Esposito and I are working on a case that's looking more and more like a vampire is taking human lives._

_May I? _Katya asked the question in a curt, decisive way, but Ryan understood fully what she was asking for, having done it many times himself. Ryan nodded his acceptance, and opened their minds to his memories of the crime scene and the murder board. Katya then let out an audible stream of what sounded to be curses in a language that Ryan did not fully understand. _Forgive me, beloved, _Katya returned to projecting through the mind-link, _but such matters are normally taken care of within the vampire community. You are right that this zver is hunting humans for sport as well as to slake his thirst. Such a menace threatens our way of life as much as it does the human community. He must be taken care of at once._

_He will, Katya, _Ryan assured his old flame, pouring as much peace and balance as he could into the connection they shared. _I promise you, we'll get him._

Katya seemed reassured by Ryan's words and emotional support...but it seemed to inspire her in other ways as well. _May I join you on this hunt, honored Mùshī?_

Ryan noticed immediately that this was the first time she had addressed him by his Guardian title, and that she was making a formal request not just of him, but of the rest of his team as well. He turned to his partner. _Well? She knows a lot more about this guy that we do. It could be helpful to have her on the team._

Esposito considered the facts carefully. The woman he was talking about was not only a vampire who clearly had some power to control minds, but she was also, of all things, Ryan's *ex* and a woman who his partner clearly still had some level of deep feelings for. _Are you *sure* you can handle working with her? Don't forget you *are* disgustingly, happily married with a baby on the way? If Jenny finds out that you're working with your ex..._

_Then I'll remind her that Castle did it for a case too and he and Beckett are just fine, _Ryan countered sharply.

Esposito let out a loud audible sigh, not wanting to argue with his partner's currently selective memory and creative re-writing of history. _All right, fine, _he relented, _but it's not just up to me. This is a Guardian decision, and *all* the Guardians have to approve letting her help. I'll call Lanie and ask her to meet us at the precinct._

Ryan nodded his acceptance and went to help Katya collect her things. As the mind-link closed and Esposito pulled out his phone, his thoughts were consumed by the one thing that he knew his partner had absolutely no desire to hear right now. _Man, I really hope we don't all end up regretting this..._

* * *

**Hi gang! I know, two chapters in one day again. I just got so excited about you guys getting to know Katya a little that well, this went a lot faster than I thought. So what do you think? Do you like her? Hate her? Leave your comments below. :-) **


	6. Chapter 6

The bullpen was unusually quiet, the few detectives on the night shift mostly working on their personal mountains of paperwork. In contrast, the light streaming out of one of the conference rooms seemed almost blinding by comparison.

Never had the phrase 'burning the midnight oil' felt more appropriate.

Detective Kate Beckett and her consultant-partner Richard Castle were pouring over the case files of the three dead prostitutes, trying to find some connection between them; some link that would show why they had been marked for death. Castle finally leaned back in his chair and let out a weary sigh. "There's something that we're missing here," he thought out loud, "I just don't know what it is."

Never looking up from the file she was studying, Beckett countered, "Well if you knew what it was, then we wouldn't be looking for it, now would we?"

Castle rolled his eyes before both of them broke out in matching, affectionate grins. "Detective Beckett," he teased, "you know me far too well."

"Can't argue that," chimed in the voice at the door. The couple looked up to find a face neither of them had expected to see that evening. "Lanie!" exclaimed Beckett, "what are you doing here this late?"

Lanie frowned at her friends in confusion. "Javi called me and asked me to meet everyone here. Says that Ryan found something at some place called the Den of Iniquity that we all need to discuss. What's this about?"

"We've been called in on a case in Midtown South," Castle started to explain, "three dead prostitutes..."

Lanie caught on immediately. "So you guys got the call to consult on the Mid South Vampire, huh? Now why does that not surprise me?"

"How much do you know about the case?" asked Beckett.

"Besides what I heard Perlmutter and Tyler arguing about, not much," Lanie replied with a shrug. "Neither of them seem like they've made a whole lot of friends over this case."

Beckett brought her friend up to speed. "Three prostitutes, all killed by exsanguination. Each one lived in different parts of the city, none of them worked the same corners or ran in similar circles of friends. We got an expert who verified it probably is a vampire, but at this point I can't even be certain we're only looking for one vamp and not two or three."

"What about witnesses? I heard Tyler say the third girl was taken outside a club?" asked Lanie.

Castle shook his head. "That's the weirdest part. No one at the scene can remember anything from a ten-minute block of time on the night of the disappearance. It like they just black out and come back ten minutes later."

"And the boys...?"

"Nothing," replied Beckett. "The memories aren't being repressed, they're just not *there*."

"What about forensics?"

"According to Tyler, Perlmutter is dragging is feet on getting back the test results." replied Castle.

"He's probably re-running all the tests because he's getting results back that he doesn't understand. I'll see if I can talk to him."

Beckett smiled with relief. "Thanks, Lanie."

"So what's this 'Den of Iniquity' place?"

Castle started to explain, "It's a club for the wannabe vampire community..."

"Apparently not just the wannabes," Esposito chimed in by the door.

The group looked up to give Esposito their attention. "Did you find our suspect?" asked Beckett.

Esposito shook his head. "No. But we did find an expert on the subject of vampires. She's offered to help us on this case."

"Really?" asked Beckett. "Who is she? When are you meeting with her?"

Esposito moved past the door and crossed to the empty chair beside his girlfriend. This allowed Katya to come into the room, followed by Ryan. Castle eyebrows went up in surprise immediately. "*She's* our vampire expert?"

Ryan turned on his partner in annoyance. "Vampire *expert*?!"

Esposito immediately jumped on the defensive. "Well, it's bad enough that she's your *ex*, bro. Maybe I wanted to work up to the other stuff gently..."

"*Gently*?! Javi, since when have you ever been *gentle* about anything..."

Castle fought to raise his voice so he could cut off the argument before it went any further. "Hey, hey, guys, take it easy! All I was trying to say is that she looks like she might have gotten most of her vampire knowledge from the 'Twilight' series..."

Ryan and Esposito looked at each other, then at Katya, then at Castle, and burst out laughing. "Man, bro," Esposito spoke up, gasping for air, "you aren't even *close* to being off-base here..."

Castle, for his part, was simply confused. "What'd I *say*?"

While Katya could see how the others would find the Sìfāng's statement amusing, she knew she could afford herself no such luxury until the group grew more comfortable with her presence. "I think that what they were trying to say, honored Sìfāng, is that I am considerably older than those children who have grown up with the horribly mistaken belief that those sparkly blood players could be considered true vampires."

Castle felt like he was getting more lost by the minute. *Beckett*, however, was not. "Wait a minute...you're Ryan's ex-girlfriend?" Katya nodded. "The one who got us into the Den of Iniquity the first time Castle and I had to visit?" Katya nodded again. Beckett quickly ran through the clues in her head. _Into the vampire lifestyle...looks young, but makes comments about how she's considerably older than she looks...she pegged Castle for the Sìfāng right away, which means she reads auras *and* knows about the Guardians somehow...although if Ryan's giving that information away free to just anybody I *will* kill him..._Beckett reached out with her senses, examining the 'young' woman in front of her for any signs of being non-human. The clues she got back were all little things, but they verified her hypothesis: lower body temperature, slower heart rate, no signs of needing to breathe, and that light smell around her that wasn't...quite...right..."You're not just a vampire *expert*, are you?" Beckett declared. "You're a vampire."

Katya knelt into a small curtsy. "Ekaterina Petrovich, at you service..." She gasped and quickly deepened the curtsy as she finally realized who she was talking to. "Forgive me, honored Lièrén...your aura can be so hard to place, sometimes..."

"My aura?" It occurred to Beckett that even though she had spent so much of her time looking at the auras of others, she had given no thought to what her *own* aura might look like.

Katya, for her part, seemed to be kicking herself over something. "I should have known when the Xiānzhī spoke of an aura reader...you are Detective...Beckett, are you not?"

Beckett nodded, stepping fully into interrogation mode. "You seem quite familiar with the Guardians, Ms. Petrovich."

"Please, honored Lièrén, call me Katya. And yes, I was fortunate to live under the protection of the Guardians for many years. I counted them as good friends."

Beckett turned to Esposito. "She's not our killer?"

Esposito shook his head. "She was at the Met last night. Orchestra box. Ushers remember her well."

"I can produce the ticket stubs if you'd like?" Katya volunteered. "It was Götterdämmerung...one of my favorites. So very tragic..."

Beckett waved off the offer. "That won't be necessary."

Ryan volunteered, "Katya has volunteered to help us catch the vampire who's doing this. Evidently, killing people is frowned upon within the vampire community."

Castle raised an eyebrow at that. "Really?"

Katya nodded. "There are so many sources of blood available to our kind these days that it would be foolish to risk exposure, persecution and possible extinction just for sustenance. In fact, many older vampires are the primary financial backers of synthetic blood research."

Ryan looked out across the table at his friends. "Does anyone have any objections to Katya working this case with us?"

"Take some time to talk it over with your friends," Katya encouraged Ryan, "I won't listen in. You have my word."

Ryan nodded and squeezed his ex-girlfriend's hand in a wordless expression of thanks. He then opened the mind-link to his fellow Guardians. _Floor's open, guys. What do you think?_

Beckett turned to Esposito for verification. _The things she's told you...do they match up with her memories?_

Esposito nodded. _Yes, but they're *her* memories, and there are a hell of a lot of 'em. If she's changed them over the centuries to better fit the story in her own mind then I got no way of verifying that._

Beckett considered the problem carefully. _I think I *might* have my own way to check her references, but I need some time alone to do it and we're burning moonlight...so to speak. But for now this might fall under keep your friends close and your enemies closer, so I'm ok with trying to pick her brain._

Ryan then volunteered, _Would it help to know that, according to her, if she tried to feed on any of us it would probably kill her?_

That news raised several eyebrows in the group...especially Lanie's. _Really?_

Esposito also eyed this news with suspicion. _Bro, then why did she...?_

_Try to seduce you? _Ryan cut him off, finishing his partner's unspoken question. As Esposito nodded, Ryan continued, _she wasn't trying for *you* specifically. She was just trolling the room, and pulled back the minute she recognized us._

_Are you sure that she didn't just stop trolling because she found *you*, bro?_

_You should have the memory of our conversation now, Javi, _Ryan countered, _you tell me._

Esposito replayed Katya's memory of the earlier conversation. _Ok, while it *was* at least partially because of her past with Ryan that she stopped trolling, she *does* also believe that Guardian blood would be instantly fatal._

_Then I have no objections, _voted Castle. _A vampire who can't drink from us is just a source who's physically stronger than most. I'm willing to bet that you guys could take her in a 3-on-1 fight pretty easily._

_Yeah, but are you willing to bet your *life* on it? _asked Esposito.

Castle nodded, adding with a smirk, _As long as Lanie's here, then yes._

_I have no objections either, _Lanie chimed in.

Esposito turned in surprise to his girlfriend. _Are you *sure*, chica?_

Lanie nodded. _The blood thing actually supports some theories I've had based on the healings I've done on you guys. So she may be right about Guardian blood having the power to kill her. That takes the teeth out of her ability to fight *or* try to seduce you again. I'm good._

_Then that's a majority, _Esposito concluded, _but bro, just remember that you're putting a whole lot more on the line here than just your life. Be *careful*._

Ryan broke the mind-link without responding to his partner. Sensing the end of their private conversation, Beckett turned her attention back to the being who was simply standing at attention, waiting slightly nervously for the results. "Katya, please have a seat, and thank you for offering to help."

Katya and Ryan took the last two empty chairs at the conference table. Beckett pulled out the three bite mark photographs, and pushed them over to Katya. "These are the reason we believe a vampire killed these women."

"Yes," agreed Katya as she looked at the photos. "You would be correct. These are not marks that a blood player's teeth would leave behind. These are the marks of a binge kill."

"Binge kill?" asked Ryan.

Katya nodded. "Remember how, in our earlier conversation, I compared human blood to alcohol?" When Ryan nodded, Katya continued, "Unfortunately, some of my kind can have the occasional bout with 'alcoholism', as it were. Whoever killed these women was searching for his next buzz. They won't stop until they are killed in some way."

"What *would* kill them, exactly?" asked Castle.

"Out of the 'traditional' methods, only three really work: decapitation, sunlight and a wooden stake through the heart. But then, of course, there's also your blood."

"Yeah, Ryan mentioned that," said Lanie. "Do you know why Guardian blood works, by any chance?"

"I do," replied Katya. "Or at least, I can pass on the theory as the Yīzhì explained it to me. He believed that the blessing gave a permanent charge to a Guardian's blood that, in a vampire, would work in a manner similar to the light of the sun."

Lanie made a mental note to pursue the idea further as she commented, "Interesting..."

Beckett turned their focus quickly back to the case at hand. "Are we only dealing with one vampire here?"

Katya studied the three photographs closely. "I would say so, although I am not a dentist, so I could hardly say for sure..."

"Vampires go to *dentists*?" exclaimed Esposito.

"Of course," replied Katya. "Blood drinking can badly stain your teeth, especially over the centuries. As more and more of my kind have adapted to modern society, we have found that availing ourselves of good dental hygiene is becoming more and more of a necessity."

Castle and Beckett looked at each other, remembering the strange way their conversation with Dr. Frank had ended. "You wouldn't happen to know a Dr. Barry Frank, by any chance, would you?"

Katya's lips turned upward in a fang-bearing grin the Guardians almost instinctively found uncomfortable. "Doctor Barry?" she exclaimed. "Best fang man in the city. I wouldn't go to anyone else."

* * *

**I am having soo much fun writing this story. :D It's even getting to the point where I'm tempted to spin Katya off into a world of original fiction. Would you be interested in reading more about her? She'd be *slightly* different than what you're going to see in the upcoming chapters because I couldn't use Ryan or Dr. Frank (although using the Guardian predecessors isn't out of the question *g*). As always, comments, reviews, critiques, even flames and snide remarks all welcome!**


	7. Chapter 7

Castle and Beckett pulled up to the West Village brownstone of Dr. Barry Frank with Katya in tow. As Beckett shut off the engine, she turned around to their vampire 'consultant'. "Katya, I need you to do something for me. It's *very* important."

Katya's ears perked up immediately. "Yes, honored Lièrén?"

"There are *very* few humans who know of the Guardians at all," replied Beckett. "let alone know that *we* are the Guardians. If we aren't among...your kind or alone, I need to ask you to not refer to us by our titles. You can address me as Detective Beckett and the Sìfāng as Mr. Castle or Rick."

Katya nodded. "Yes, honored...I mean, yes, Detective Beckett."

Beckett sighed as she got out of the car, crossing the front of the vehicle to meet Castle and Katya on the quiet, streetlamp-lit sidewalk. The trio let themselves in past the gate and walked up the stairs to ring the doorbell.

Inside, the noise of a man stumbling around his living room could clearly be heard. Dr. Frank yelled out, "Just a second!"

Castle raised an eyebrow. "Clearly the good doctor was not expecting visitors tonight."

Beckett nodded, indicating her agreement with that statement.

The trio heard the sound of locks being unlocked behind them. As the doctor started to open the door, he made what sounded like a very practiced demand. "If I've told you people once, I've told you a thousand times, when I close the practice for the night, I..."

Dr. Frank's tirade was abruptly stopped when he realized exactly *who* was at his front door. The composition of the group standing in front of him could only mean one thing...

"You've been holding out on us, Doctor Frank," said Detective Beckett. It wasn't a question.

Dr. Frank let out a weary sigh. "Rick, Detective Beckett, I see you've met Ms. Petrovich." He stepped aside to let the trio enter. "Won't the three of you please come in."

"Thank you," replied Katya, accepting the invitation across the dentist's threshold.

As the group walked in Beckett cut right to the chase. "Doctor, why didn't you tell us before that you treat vampires?"

The dentist checked up and down his street before closing the door and facing the music. "I wasn't sure if you actually believed in vampires, detective...despite current evidence to the contrary."

"Fair enough," agreed Beckett. She pulled out the three bite mark photographs from the folder she was carrying. "So now that we're on the same page, would you be so kind as to look over these photos again for us?"

"I don't need to," Frank told them. "If I can promise you anything, it's that those images will be burned into my brain for the rest of my life." He crossed the living room to look out of the windows before continuing. "I met my first...non-living patient almost twenty years ago, detective. Lovely being...completely and utterly civilized. We've discussed politics, art, literature, music...Not *once* did he ever so much as look at me the wrong way. He has been a complete gentleman for the past *twenty years*, and has referred many, many patients to me...almost all of whom I've kept as friends. Then they started referring patients, and...lately I've been trying to figure out how to hire an associate just to keep up with the demand." Frank then paused, no longer able to look the detective in the eye. "I guess I got lulled into a false sense of security, detective. I forgot that these...beings are bloodthirsty killers. And I've been helping them maintain their primary weapon..."

"Enough," insisted Katya. She positioned herself so that she could look the doctor as squarely in the eye as she could. "Doctor Barry, the reason that you are the most well respected dentist among our kind is because you treat us as *equals*. You don't fear us *or* worship us, which seem to be the two reactions we almost always get. You just provide us with great service and polite conversation. The time I spend in your office is the most *normal* I ever get to feel, and I can not tell you the value that I place on that feeling. Doctor, please believe me when I tell you that anyone who kills like this is *not* representative of my kind, and their actions are most certainly *not* your fault."

Dr. Frank reached over and squeezed Katya's hand in a gesture of acceptance. "Thank you, Katya. It means a lot to me to hear you say that." He then allowed himself for the first time since the trio had crossed his threshold. "Now, what is it that you need clarification on, detective?"

"Well, now that we're all agreed that the bites were made by vampires, are we looking for one vampire or several?" asked Beckett.

Dr. Frank thought over Beckett's question carefully. "I believe those bites were all made by the same vampire, detective. I do have a quick test that I can do to further verify that, if you'd like..." When Beckett nodded, Frank motioned over to his dining room table. "Please, detective, if you will just put those photos down on the table over there."As Beckett complied, the dentist pulled out a ruler from his desk, carefully measuring the space between each of the puncture wounds. "While I can't say with a hundred percent certainty that you're looking for a single attacker, I can tell you that the space between the fangs is the same in each of these photos. That *strongly* leads me to believe that you're looking for only one vampire between these three attacks."

Castle looked down at the photos, considering them in light of the dentist's advice. "Do you keep records of your vampire patients, doc? The way you do for humans?"

Dr. Frank nodded, so Beckett then asked, "Tomorrow when you get into the office can you send us the dental record of any of your patients whose bite fits that spacing?"

"There shouldn't be too many," agreed Dr. Frank. "With that spacing you're most likely looking for a male...a big one."

"If you send the records to Dr. Lanie Parrish at the Medical Examiner's office, I can promise you that they will be handled with complete security and discretion," added Beckett.

Dr. Frank nodded again, clearly relieved. "Thank you, detect..."

The sound of breaking glass interrupted the closing moments of the group's conversation. Dr. Frank watched in horror as his couch erupted in a massive wall of alcohol-provoked flames. "It's a Molotov," he coughed out, "everyone go through the back..." Beckett took off out the front door and down the street before anyone noticed she was gone.

Dr. Frank took two steps toward his kitchen before he realized that the choking, acrid smoke was already dissipating and the searing heat was completely gone. Turning around, he nearly fainted when he saw that the couch was undisturbed and his window completely restored to normal. The dentist shook his head in disbelief. "M-my couch *was* just on fire, right? I didn't imagine that..."

Before Castle could respond, Katya nodded. "Old predatory trick, my friend. The easiest way to bypass the safety of the threshold is to destroy the house itself. No house, no threshold. If the Guardians had not been here to protect you, my old friend, you would most certainly be dead...either by the flames or by the one we seek."

Beckett ran back into the room, only then realizing that people had just started to notice her absence. "I..."

Katya ignored Beckett's attempt to start making an excuse. "The vampire we are looking for has seen Doctor Barry working with us and was looking to, 'tie up loose ends', as it were. He is no longer safe here."

"All right," Detective Beckett agreed with a sigh, "Doctor Frank, if you'd like I can arrange for you to be put in protec..."

"No!" exclaimed Katya. "That would provide him no safety from the one we are fighting, since he wouldn't even have a threshold to protect himself behind. No, he can stay with me. Doctor Barry, these beings will not attack during the day, and at night I have more than enough protections set up that you will be safe in my apartment even in my absence."

Doctor Barry just stared at Katya in confusion. "But why am I not safe here? I mean if that Molotov had no effect..."

"Mr. Castle cannot stay here to protect you all the time, Doctor Barry," Katya replied simply. When Dr. Frank stared at her in shock and the two Guardians rolled their eyes in complete annoyance, Katya could only wince. Blushing, she asked the the two Guardians, "I was not supposed to say that last part, was I?" Castle and Beckett shook their heads in near unison, which caused Katya to hang her own head in shame. "Forgive me, honored ones. I think of Doctor Barry like one of my kind. I figured it was safe."

Dr. Frank, for his part, was still hanging on Katya's last statement to him. "R-r-Rick did this? *He* stopped the Molotov cocktail?"

Castle could only think of one appropriate response. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Doctor Frank, Than are dreamt of even in *your* philosophy..."

Having spent twenty years living with the knowledge of the existence of real, live, vampires, Dr. Barry Frank had developed a curiosity for all things strange and unusual. And this situation, to him, was quickly becoming his new pinnacle of strange and unusual. He blocked the path to the car, refusing to let any member of the trio in front of him get into it. "So start at the beginning..."

* * *

After a highly abbreviated version of their story and an abundance of promises to have Lanie get in contact with the good dentist in the morning, Dr. Frank had retired to the safety of Katya's ultra-secure guest bedroom.

"That was...awkward," said Castle.

"Again, please forgive me, honored ones," asked Katya, clearly still embarrassed. "I have been friends with Doctor Barry for so long and have told him so much about my life that I didn't even think about what you told me in the car earlier, so when Mr. Castle stopped that fire from spreading..."

Beckett turned to challenge Castle, who reacted with an instinctive defensiveness. "What was I supposed to do, Beckett? If we ran outside we risked whoever threw the Molotov coming after *us* but we couldn't stay inside unless I put out the fire..."

"All right, all right!" exclaimed Beckett. "You were backed into a corner, so you did what you had to do. Anyway, at least we *did* get one crucial piece of information out of this mess. If that *was* our off-the-wagon vampire, then he drives a black Tesla."

It was only then that Beckett allowed herself a small smile. "And I got his license plate number."

* * *

Ryan leaned back in his conference room chair and yawned. They had been working on the case since the early morning hours with almost no break...which had never been his favorite way to tackle *anything*. He needed to come at things with a fresh perspective, and in order to do that, he needed sleep. Badly. He projected his thoughts into his partner's mind, _Javi?_

_Yeah, bro? _Esposito replied.

His partner's reply sounded extremely distracted. _You ok, man?_

_I was thinking about our witnesses at the third crime scene._

_The whole memory loss thing?_

Esposito nodded. _It doesn't make a whole lot of sense. When you use that Jedi mind trick thing to subdue a suspect, they remember it...even if they remember it in a bit of a haze. Even when I was under Katya's control..._he deliberately forced down the memory of acting like a lovesick six-year-old before continuing..._even with that I remember the experience. I don't *like* remembering it, but it's still there._

_So what are you thinking?_

_I'm wondering if I...I'm wondering if I looked in the wrong place for the memory._

Maybe it was from the lack of sleep, but Ryan was starting to get confused. _The wrong place? Javi, where else would you *look*?_

_I've always looked at people's memories before this...y'know, their past, learned abilities, stuff like that. *Occasionally* I've seen into people's futures as well. But one thing I've never tried is to look in their *subconscious*._

_Their subconscious?_

Esposito nodded again. _I think they think they might have dreamt the whole thing. And if they thought that..._

_Then the memories would be in the subconscious and if we looked for them in their conscious minds we'd draw a blank._

_Exactly._

Ryan tried to come up with a more positive response to his partner's idea, but all that came out was another yawn. Worse, he was starting to hear the trailing edges of people's thoughts on the floors above and below him; it was a sure sign that his controls were starting to fail him. _Mind if I at least catch 20 on the couch in the break room before we try this little experiment?_

Esposito saw the obvious weariness in his partner's demeanor and chuckled. "Tell ya what, bro. Go home and get a couple hours sleep. We can always track down the witnesses tomorrow."

"Thanks, man," Ryan agreed with a smile. "See you tomorrow."

* * *

**As always, comments, questions, snide remarks are all welcome! Oh, and to all of you who got bomb-loaded this past weekend because you signed for an author alert for me...sorry? I archived about 95% of my old writings all in one big session. There's only a few more stories left, though...and I can promise you, they won't get posted all at once. =)  
**


	8. Chapter 8

Doctor Lanie Parish yawned as she walked down the corridors of the Medical Examiner's building, which only made the smell of the coffee she held in her hands all the more frustrating. Javier hadn't come home until almost 3am, and while her boyfriend did all he could to try and not wake her up...he still did. And while she did finally get back to sleep about 20 minutes later, it was a fitful, frustrating level of sleep that left her more tired than she was when she went to bed. Lanie took a sip of the coffee as she pushed open the door to the morgue with her other hand, enjoying the taste of her drink...but also cursing in frustration as the rush of energy she was hoping to get from the caffeine did *not* happen. _Hmmm..._she thought, _it's been forever since I've even attempted to try treating *myself*. That generalized cell regeneration treatment always seems to do wonders for Javi; maybe I should try it. Now, if I could just get ten minutes of peace and quiet..._

Lanie was so lost in her exhausted haze that she bumped right into Sidney Perlmutter, nearly spilling her hot coffee on him. The two doctors jumped back immediately from each other. "Oh man," declared Lanie, "I am *so* sorry..."

Perlmutter was immediately apologetic, "It's all right, Lanie, don't worry about it..." He was clearly focused on what was going on under his microscope...so much so that the doctor had not looked at Lanie *once* since she walked in, even as he forgave and waved off the incident.

"Sid?" Lanie asked him quietly and with great concern, "You sure you're okay?"

Perlmutter sat back away from the microscope and let out a weary sigh. "Lanie," he replied, "take a look under that microscope and tell me what you see."

Lanie looked in the microscope and recognized the fluid underneath the slide immediately. "It's plasma."

"Exactly!" exclaimed Perlmutter, shaking his head sadly. "Whatever drained these victims took only the blood but somehow left the plasma behind in the veins. I just don't get it. You need a *centrifuge* to do this! How..."

_How indeed, _thought Lanie. It was a valid scientific question, and one she made a mental note to ask Katya about later that evening. _But until then..._"You seem to be having a lot of problems with this case, Sid. Want some help?"

Lanie did't have to ask twice. Perlmutter took the files that were sitting next to him, handed them to Lanie, then, without saying another word about it, turned around and left the morgue. The Guardian locked the door behind him, setting the files on her desk and vowing to start working on them...in about ten minutes.

* * *

It was almost 4 o'clock in the afternoon before the first of the 12th Precinct Guardians returned to the bullpen. Beckett hurried straight into the precinct and sat down at her computer, checking her e-mail to see if the feelers she sent out yesterday had turned up any leads.

Seeing her senior homicide detective moving with such purpose made Captain Gates curious as to what was going on. She left her office and greeted Beckett by her computer. "Detective? Where are we on the Midtown South case?"

Beckett, for her part, was so intent on checking her e-mails that even the captain's quiet greeting nearly caused the woman to jump out of her chair. When the detective turned around to find Gates standing behind her with two cups of coffee, she couldn't help but let out a nervous sigh of relief. "I'm so sorry, sir, but you..."

"It's all right," Gates reassured her, "given the circumstances surrounding your current case I'd be a little jumpy myself. Oh, and thank you for the e-mail about everyone coming in late. It's completely understandable given the hours all of you worked last night. Where are they, by the way?"

"Castle wanted to visit Doctor Frank so we can get his patients' dental records. Given what happened last night, he figured it might make sense to deliver those records to Dr. Parish personally."

Gates sipped her coffee. "What *did* happen last night, detective?"

"Ryan and Esposito found someone at the Den of Iniquity who led us to believe that Dr. Frank had not been entirely...truthful when Castle and I interviewed him."

_I know I'm going to regret asking this, _thought Gates, _but..._"Someone, detective?"

"A vampire, sir. Her name's Ekaterina Petrovich. Apparently she is one of Dr. Frank's many vampire patients, sir."

_Yep. Regret it already. _"We're not talking about humans pretending to be vampires anymore, are we, detective?"

"No, sir. We went to Dr. Frank's house and confronted him on the...discrepancy. He corrected our mistaken...perceptions of his practice, and he has agreed to send us any dental records of patients he has who might fit the bite pattern."

"And those are the records Castle is delivering to Dr. Parish?"

Beckett nodded, sipping her own coffee. "Yes, sir."

"Why the need for the extra security?" asked Gates.

"When we were at Dr. Frank's residence, sir, we were attacked. Molotov cocktail."

Gates' eyes widened. "Everyone's okay, though, right?"

"Yes, sir," replied Beckett. "Castle caught and corrected the problem before the damage got too severe. I was able to get the license plate number of the car as it drove away. A Black Tesla. That's why I came in early, sir...I wanted to see if my queries came back."

"Any luck?"

Beckett shook her head. "Unfortunately, no. The car's registered to an abandoned building in Alphabet City. Dead end."

"Have you contacted the dealership yet?" asked Gates.

"Waiting to hear back."

Gates suggested, "Let me know when you hear back from the dealer. If there's a discrepancy between their records and the DMV that might tell us something."

"Will do, sir."

Gates turned and walked back to her office. Closing the door, she sat down at her desk, pulled a business card out of her wallet and dialed what was she had a feeling was going to become a very familiar phone number.

* * *

_One thing about working through your secretary's lunch, _thought Simon Banks, _is that you always have to answer your own phone. _He grumbled as he realized the line had rung for the fourth time and the person on the other end was just not going to 'go away'. Finally after that fourth ring he picked up the phone. "Banks."

"Simon? It's Victoria Gates."

Simon forced himself to set aside his own personal complaints for the moment, focusing his attention on the woman he had met a week earlier. After his star team and best friends, Detective Jim Ellison and college professor Blair Sandburg, had invited him to a private lunch, he was whisked off to New York City by two of Ellison and Sandburg's new friends: telepath/detective Kevin Ryan and (of all things) world-famous crime novelist and secret *wizard* Richard Castle. Turns out Ellison and Sandburg had volunteered him to have a little chat with Ryan's captain, Victoria Gates, who was having trouble dealing with the fact that four members of her department and the writer who wouldn't go away were now the modern-day incarnation of some ancient Chinese legend.

He could relate, what with Ellison and Sandburg being the modern-day incarnation of a tribal Peruvian legend and all.

The one good thing that came out of all this, in Simon's opinion, was that he actually *liked* the other captain...who, he felt, had a fierce devotion to the job and its people that was similar to his own. "Good evening, captain. How are things in the Big Apple?"

"Stranger than ever. How's Cascade?"

"Ah, same old, same old. What can I do for you, Victoria?"

Gates hesitated, finding that she had trouble putting her question into words. "Simon, how do you deal with it when...when..."

Simon smiled on the other end of the line, knowing exactly where the other captain was coming from. "When a case takes a turn into the Twilight Zone?"

"Yes, exactly," replied Gates.

"I tend to find a cigar helps," Simon said with a chuckle. His tone quickly turning serious, Simon asked her, "What makes this case different than any other case they could have been assigned?"

Gates considered the question carefully. "The killer...is someone we will not be able to bring to justice through 'conventional' means."

"Ah. And the methods you're going to have to use to catch him?"

"Not even close to conventional."

Simon nodded, even though the woman on the other end of the line wouldn't be able to see it. "Uh huh. Victoria, how did you *think* they were going to catch this guy?" Gates didn't have an answer to that, and Simon knew it. "Look, this comes with the territory. You have to make a decision here about what is worth more to you: filing accurate reports that the higher-ups will easily believe, or getting the bad guys off the street and protecting your team. Which is it?"

After giving her a beat to think about it, Simon continued on. "Hey, look at the bright side: at least you have a best-selling author to write up your reports. I have an anthropologist. Do you know how wordy academics can get?"

"Castle doesn't write up their reports, Simon."

"You *hired* him, didn't you?"

Gates finally allowed herself to smile as she put two and two together. "That we did..."

* * *

Beckett got off the phone with the dealership just as Castle sat down at his new desk. "That was the Tesla dealership," Beckett told him.

"There's only one?" asked Castle.

"On the whole east coast, apparently," Beckett replied. "Anyway, I asked them to see if they had anything in their records about who bought the Black Tesla with the license plate number I discovered."

"And?"

Beckett's eye lit up with anticipation, as they always did when she finally caught wind of what she hoped was a credible lead. "The person they sold the Tesla to was completely different than the currently registered owner of the car. And *she* lives on the Upper East Side. Want to come with me to pay her a visit?"

* * *

It was well after dark when Castle and Beckett were finally able to track down the super in the apartment building where Catherine Jameson lived...at one point. "Keep your guard up, Castle," whispered Beckett as they walked the long hallway to apartment 25J. "The fact that Catherine Jameson has been missing for two weeks can *not* be a coincidence."

The hum of the energy shield that immediately surrounded Beckett told her that Castle didn't think it was a coincidence either.

The super unlocked the door to the apartment and left without opening it or saying another word to them. Castle watched the man practically run away from them as Beckett pulled a flashlight from an inside pocket of her coat and handed it to him. "Was it me," Castle asked, confused, "or did he just..."

"Like I said before, Castle," insisted Beckett. "Keep your guard up."

Castle nodded and upped the intensity on their energy shields as the door creaked slowly open in front of them.


	9. Chapter 9

"Hi boys!" one of the women called out to the two men approaching them, "you looking for a three-way this evening? Or a pa-"

The older woman next to the young blond cut off her friend quickly as she recognized who the two men *were*. "Forgive my friend, *detectives*," the older woman emphasized the last word as a teaching tool. "She's new to the neighborhood."

Ryan and Esposito approached the older woman with easy familiarity, even as her 'friend' was cursing her own stupidity in the background. "S'alright, Jules," Esposito commented, "I'm sure you'll teach her the ropes soon enough. Anyway, we're here about 'Nique's murder the other night."

Jules raised an eyebrow in surprise. "I told you everything I remembered about that night, detective," she insisted. A lump seemed to catch in her throat as Jules added, "I really wish there was more I could tell you. Really. 'Nique was a good kid."

Esposito seized on his opportunity, placing a comforting hand on Jules' shoulder. It was less than a second before he got all the information he needed. "I promise, Jules. We'll find out who did this."

"I hope you do, detective," said Jules wistfully. "I really hope you do."

Esposito blew off the cynical comment; he knew that promises made to women in Jules' profession were rarely kept. He pulled out a business card and handed it to her. "If you *do* remember anything, you'll call me?"

Jules took the business card, examined it carefully, and tucked it into the top of her candy apple red stiletto boots. "You got it, detective. And hey...I give discounts to members of the law enforcement community. For you and your sweet little partner here," she purred, "half price."

"Thanks for the offer, Jules," Esposito countered as graciously as he could, "but my partner here is *really* happily married, and we gotta go..."

The two Guardians turned around and walked away from the two women, Ryan's smile growing to match Esposito's as his smile refused to fade. _You got it? _asked Ryan through the mind-link.

_Bro, I *so* got it..._

_So those ten minutes...?_

_Were right where we thought they'd be, _replied Esposito. _Monique was picked up by a tall, dark-haired twenty-something-looking man in a Black Tesla. _He flashed a picture of their new suspect down the mind-link.

_C'mon, _said Ryan, _let's go find ourselves a vampire..._

* * *

Beckett poked her head into the apartment, looking around to see if she could see anything unusual. Behind her, the beam of a flashlight told Beckett exactly where her partner was standing. "She's been missing two weeks, you said?" asked Castle.

"She was *reported* missing two weeks ago," replied Beckett. "She may have been missing for longer than that."

Castle tried flipping the light switch repeatedly...to no avail. "My guess is she's been missing for more than two..."

Beckett cut her partner off with a forced, "Shhhhh..."

The silence in the room told Castle exactly what he needed to know: his partner was hearing something in the apartment that he wasn't. "Beckett?" Castle asked in a quiet whisper, "What is it?"

"I'm hearing...growling," Beckett told him, "on the other side of this door..."

The door exploded in front of them, sending both Castle and Beckett flying across the room. Almost immediately they were attacked by a couple of...animals. Snarling, drooling, big feral dogs...at least, that was what Castle was forced to assume they were when his flashlight got knocked out of his hand.

Beckett rolled out of the beast's control quickly, her night vision telling her what Castle's normal sight could not. These weren't animals.

They were vampires.

"Castle!" Beckett yelled out as soon as she was upright. "They're vampires!"

_Got it, _thought Castle, formulating a plan immediately. His hands erupted in flames that spread instantly to the vampire on top of him. The beast staggered away from Castle in a frustrated half-effort to extinguish himself.

He was consumed to dust in seconds.

The light the vampire gave off before he died, though, had given Castle more than enough time to see the location of the other attackers in the room. Fireballs took out two more vampires...but all rational thought was cut off when Castle heard Beckett's scream. Castle's heart sank with the realization: when the vampire attacked him, he was so busy trying to fight back...

...he had let down their shields.

The last vampire had pinned Beckett against the wall, and was sinking his teeth into her flesh. She heard one stomach-churning slurp...

...before the beast staggered back in obvious pain. An unearthly howl pierced the air. The waistband of the vampire's pants burst into flames. The flames spread down the beast's legs and up his arms, consuming his head and his feet last and giving Beckett one last horrifying image of her attacker's face, twisted into a grotesque mask of agony...just before it exploded into dust.

Castle was by Beckett's side before the room returned to its normal levels of darkness. "Kate! Are you all right?"

Beckett reached her right hand up to feel the area where the vampire had bitten down on the left side of her neck. All she could feel was blood. It made her light-headed even thinking about it. "Get me to Lanie," she told him in a voice that was far too weak for his liking. "Now..."

They were gone before Beckett could finish the word.

* * *

Ryan and Esposito burst into the morgue to find the left side of their boss' body covered in blood. Her blood. "Beckett!" Ryan exclaimed, "What happened? Are you o..."

"I'm *fine*," insisted Beckett, cutting him off. "Castle and I were out following up on a lead when we got ambushed. Wizard-boy found himself so busy playing Van Helsing that I got caught without a shield for a second, that's all."

Esposito asked, "So what's with all the..."

"Blood?" replied Beckett. "One of those guys just got their teeth into me for a second, that's all."

Ryan and Esposito's eyes widened at the same time. "*Vampires* ambushed you guys?" gasped out Ryan. "How many?"

Beckett turned to her partner for confirmation. "It was four of them, wasn't it? Maybe five, I don't remember. Castle took out almost all of them himself..."

"Still wasn't fast enough..." muttered Castle under his breath.

Beckett might have found the guilt in her boyfriend's voice endearing if she wasn't just so sick of it. "Castle, stop it!" insisted Beckett. "Four-on-two is a hard fight to deal with in *any* circumstances. And *you* took out three *vampires*. On. Your. Own."

Esposito saw where Beckett was going with this. "Pretty badass, bro," he complimented Castle, trying to encourage him.

Beckett pressed on, "The fact that one of them got the drop on me is *my* fault, not yours. *Got it?*" When Castle finally nodded, Beckett added, "and hey, now at least we know one thing for sure."

"What's that?"

"Katya wasn't kidding about Guardian blood," replied Beckett. "Castle didn't take out the vampire who attacked me. He died *because* he attacked me."

"Seriously?" asked Esposito. "So one bite and then...poof?"

Beckett winced at the uncomfortable memory of her attacker's dying screams. "Not quite like that," she replied, "but close."

Once Castle forced himself to push past his guilt over Beckett's now-healed injuries, his curiosity kicked in full force. "Beckett," he asked, "did you notice the same thing that I did about those vampires?"

"Somehow I doubt it," Beckett teased back with an affectionate smile.

Castle was too focused on making his point to respond to the attempt at a joke. "When you mentioned Katya it hit me: she's the only *real* vampire we've encountered to this point, and the vampires who attacked us tonight were nothing like her."

"No," agreed Beckett, "they acted more like..."

Their minds came up with the same name at the same time. "Morgan Lockerby."

Ryan and Esposito shuddered at the memory of the crazy 'vamp' from the Freeman case before piecing together what Castle and Beckett just told them. "The four vamps who attacked you were acting like Lockerby did?" asked Ryan.

Castle and Beckett both nodded. "There's something about vampires we're missing here," said Beckett. "We need to get Katya in here, find out..."

As if on cue, Katya appeared near the doors to the morgue, looking like she had been ripped out of a conversation abruptly. The vampire blinked, shaking of the disorientation of both the interruption and the change of scenery quickly. This could only be the work of one man, and she knew exactly who it was. "Honored Sìfāng," she began, slightly annoyed, "in the future, I would appre..." She cut off her tirade quickly as she took in the scene in front of her. "What happened?"

Castle and Beckett filled Katya in on the details of the attack and the vampires who attacked them. Katya's face fell further and further the more she heard about the beast-like nature of the vampires who attacked the Guardians. She paced the room angrily, letting out a vicious string of curses in a language that only Esposito understood. Ryan nudged his partner, "What's she saying?"

Esposito winced at the tone of Katya's diatribe, grateful that *he* wasn't the one on the receiving end of her anger. "Something about how whenever she gets the chance to settle down for a century or two some ancient SOB always swoops in to screw it all up. At least, that's the *heavily* cleaned up version, I think. Right, Katya?"

Katya looked up, having forgotten that there was someone else in the room who understood everything she was saying. "Oh? Forgive me, honored Xiānzhī. Yes, that is correct. Friends, I no longer believe we are looking for some poor vampire on a human blood bender. This is starting to look more and more like the work of an ancient."

"An ancient?" asked Lanie.

Katya nodded. "The ancients fit almost every stereotype you humans have about our kind. They're powerful, manipulative sociopaths. They're also obscenely intelligent, and would like nothing more than to see vampires rule the world and enslave the human race for all time."

"So the ambush tonight..." asked Beckett.

"Was as much a planned attack as the Molotov cocktail at Doctor Barney's was last night. He knows that we're...'on his trail', as you call it. The only thing that I'm not sure of is whether he's using these attacks to test *me* or to test all of *you*..."

Ryan and Esposito were having trouble shaking off the first part of Katya's explanation to Beckett. "Hold up," asked Esposito, "you guys were attacked by a Molotov last night? What the hell...?"

The two teams filled each other in on the events of the past twenty-four hours, starting with Dr. Frank and ending with Ryan and Esposito pulling the information about the Tesla and its driver from the witnesses' subconscious. Once they compiled the events between them, two details stuck out to the group. "Okay, first," Beckett began, "Esposito, you definitely saw a black Tesla in the memory you got from Jules, correct?" When Esposito nodded, Beckett asked him, "What was the license plate number on the car?"

"NJT 74DX," answered Esposito, "why?"

"That matches the info I got on Catherine Jameson's car from the dealer," replied Beckett, "so who was the guy driving it that night?"

"Honored Xiānzhī," Katya spoke up, "may I see the memory to which you all are referring?"

Through the mind-link, Ryan projected the memory from Esposito's mind into Katya's...which sent her off in another string of violent cursing. However, no one in the room needed Esposito's translation to pick out the target of Katya's anger that time. "Katya?" asked Ryan, "Who's Claudio?"

"Claudio Antonio Michelangelo Tetrasoni," Katya replied through clenched teeth. "A swarthy, oily, nasty, 2000 year old Roman ancient and the biggest pain in my..."

"We get the picture, Katya," Esposito cut her off before having to be forced, again, to listen to what she *really* thought of the vampire in question. "So he was driving the Tesla the night Monique disappeared?" When Katya nodded, Esposito got to the group's other question, "So who is Catherine Jameson, *where* is Catherine Jameson, and why were there a bunch of vampires waiting in her apartment to attack whoever came there looking for her?"

Katya hesitated, looking slightly uncomfortable with the information she was about to volunteer. "The ones who attacked the Sìfāng and Lièrén tonight were not true vampires, honored ones. They were orphans."

"Orphans?" asked Castle.

"Yes," Katya replied, nodding. She found herself unable to look the Guardians in the eye as she explained, "The process of turning a human into a vampire is far more complicated than the movies would have you believe, honored ones. It cannot happen over the course of one attack, even though Anne Rice got a little closer to the truth when she added the step of the vampire sharing his blood with the one they wish to turn...anyway, when the process is willfully and deliberately stopped before it is completed, the resulting being is *not* a full vampire."

"They're these orphans?" asked Beckett.

"Not all of them," replied Katya. "The turning process requires three exchanges of blood between a vampire and their intended sire, each time exchanging blood in progressively larger quantities. If the process is stopped after the first exchange, the resulting being is what your legends have termed a Thrall." Turning to Castle and Beckett, she added. "It is *possible* that a Thrall threw the Molotov cocktail when Doctor Barney was attacked."

"Really?" Castle asked, "Why?"

Katya explained, "Because no vampire, not even one as...arrogant as Claudio, would be foolish enough to handle a Molotov cocktail. Flames are simply too dangerous. If the bottle breaks in your hands you're dead. A Thrall is still partially human but totally under the control of their master. And they're highly expendable, since a Thrall will only live for about a week after they're turned in the best of circumstances. A Thrall would be the perfect choice to launch such a weapon."

"Why do Thralls have such a short life span?" asked Lanie, her medical curiosity getting the better of her.

"The first exchange only partially mixes the blood of the human and vampire. The two strains start to war within the body almost immediately. It's an excruciating process for the human to endure. Only an ancient can hold back the pain under strict mind controls...and even then, only for so long. Because there is not enough vampire blood in the Thrall to sustain them through the process, the body eventually gives out under the stress."

"Can a Thrall be cured if you get to them in time?" asked Lanie.

Katya nodded her head back and forth, considering the question carefully. "If *you* got to them in time, honored Yīzhì, perhaps. But under most circumstances, no. They must either finish the transition or lose their life altogether."

"So the second exchange is what can create an orphan, like what we fought tonight?" asked Castle.

"Yes, honored Sìfāng. Are you all familiar with porphyria?" The Guardians nodded. "True vampires have the most severe type of the disease, which is why we cannot tolerate *any* sunlight at all. After the second exchange, the human has *almost* completely turned. They have all of our gifts, and all of our disadvantages, including porphyria. But the process is still quite active, and a being coming out of the second stage needs large quantities of human blood to stabilize the mind. If they are not given that blood, the porphyria and the thirst combine to drive them completely mad...and an orphan is born."

Beckett considered Katya's information in light of the attack. "Those four orphans were left in Catherine's apartment as a vampire land mine...set up to attack anyone who came to investigate her disappearance. Is it *possible* that Catherine has been turned, and the four orphans were 'leftovers' from the process?"

"I believe that is exactly what happened, honored Lièrén. Most of the time, draining one person completely provides enough blood to complete the second stage. If this Catherine fed from four people, it would have left enough blood in their systems for her sire to leave them as orphans once the process was fully completed, although only a particularly powerful ancient would have the strength to sire a full vampire and four orphans in so short a time."

A knot formed in the pit of Ryan's stomach as he considered what he was about to ask. Still, he knew he *had* to ask it, or the question would haunt him the rest of his life. "How *is* the process completed, Katya?"

Katya couldn't bring herself to look the Guardians in the eye as she finished her explanation. "After the infant has had enough human blood to complete the second stage, the third exchange takes place. Often the infant and their sire will engage in sexual activities to speed the exchange along at this point...especially if all three exchanges occur in one night. After the exchange is completed, the infant and their sire must rest for at least 24 hours in an area that is completely free of all sunlight. When the infant awakens, they are a fully turned, biologically stable vampire."

Beckett had more questions to ask about the process...but was stopped when a pale and deeply shaken Ryan ran out of the morgue.


	10. Chapter 10

Katya found her ex-boyfriend sitting in a chair in the hallway outside the morgue. Ryan held his head in his hands, and Katya could clearly see that he was having trouble catching his breath. She sat down in one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs next to him and opened a mind-link. _You know...you look much like you did on the night you found out I was a *real* vampire, Kevin._

Ryan looked up at Katya briefly before leaning his head back against the wall and closing his eyes. _That night you wanted us to make love in a coffin, that...that wasn't *all* you were going to offer me that night, was it? _Katya shook her head. The implications of what he had been offered and what he had, unknowingly, turned down...they were concepts he was finding it next to impossible to wrap his head around. _You...you were going to offer to turn me, weren't you? _Even when he received the nod he expected in return, Ryan was having trouble believing it. _God..._

_I loved you, _Katya tried to explain. _I wanted us to be together for eternity. Is that really such a surprise?_

Ryan turned to carefully take in the features of the woman he had once adored. He remembered their passion; remembered how much of their minds, their hearts and their souls that they had bared to each other. He pushed a stray lock of her hair behind her ear, lost in the memories of their past and how imitating that same gesture used to send such a thrill through his entire being. _No. No, it isn't._

Katya pulled Ryan's hand away from her ear, lacing her fingers with his own on the armrest between them. _Then let me ask you this, beloved, _said Katya, _if I had told you everything, explained *everything* I was offering you that night...would you have said yes?_

Ryan tried to remember that night. Not in the context of what he knew now, or where he was when he first fell in love with her, but in the context of *that* night. After he knew what she was. What she had been through in her life. What she had done to survive. And how much of the life he loved that he would have had to give up in order to be with her. _I don't know...it's not like I was given the chance, was I?_

_True, _replied Katya with a wistful smile. She took time and care to form her next thoughts in her mind. _Kevin, I've lived a long time. And if I know one thing, it's this: all we can do is live in *this* moment. Not the past, not the future, *now*. If you do what you believe in your heart to be right at *this* moment, then the rest will take care of itself. There's a reason why you turned me down in that moment. And I think, if you search your heart, you will understand what that reason is._

With the emotional overload past, Ryan considered the truth in Katya's words, and squeezed her hand to let her know that he understood. _Thank you, Katya._

_You're welcome, _she replied. After a moment Katya then added, _Besides, if I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have made the offer._

Ryan was tempted to take that personally. _Really? Why not?_

_Because I know how important the Guardians are to the world, *honored one*, _she told him. _And I take great comfort in the fact that one of the reasons you can be where you are today is because you turned me down that night. Makes the pain of you *dumping* me a little more worthwhile..._

Ryan couldn't help but smile even as he felt the sting of regret for having caused her such hurt back then. His thumb caressed the back of her hand as he told her, _You know, when we first saw you at the club, Javi was so worried that I would be..._

_Tempted? _asked Katya. When Ryan nodded, Katya countered him with a level of conviction that he was totally surprised by. _Never would have happened._

_Why not? _asked Ryan.

Katya turned over their interlaced hands so that his wedding band was clearly visible. _Because of *that*. Kevin, I come from a time where the worst crime a woman could commit was adultery. I could never do that to you, your wife, or myself. I respect that vow you made, and I would never be the one to cause you to break it. I'd run a stake through my own heart first. Now your partner, on the other hand..._

_Is in a relationship with the Yīzhì. Trust me, you do *not* want to get on her bad side._

_What about the Sìfāng?_

_The Lièrén._

_By the gods, _Katya grumbled, _I might have had better luck with the monks..._

Ryan chuckled as he separated their hands and pushed himself up from his chair. _Come on, let's go rejoin the others. It's probably driving them *crazy* that they couldn't eavesdrop on our conversation..._

* * *

The rest of the group watched Ryan and Katya warily as they came back into the morgue in a much better mood than either of them had left in. "Everything okay, Ryan?" asked Beckett.

"Fine," Ryan replied casually, trying to give off as much of a 'let's not talk about it' vibe as he could.

The Guardians took their cues off of their friend and returned their conversation back to the case. "All right, then," said Beckett. "Lanie, have you gotten any hits off the dental records you got from Dr. Frank yet?"

Lanie shook her head. "Haven't gotten through that many."

"Katya, can you work with Lanie on the dental records?" asked Beckett. "See if you recognize any of the names in the files as ones that Claudio might have used." Katya nodded in agreement.

Beckett then told the rest of the group, "Catherine Jameson is going to be the key to solving this case, I think."

Katya agreed immediately. "Siring a new vampire is a major commitment. You're connected to that new vampire for at least a year while you train them to survive on their own. Claudio won't be leaving her side any time soon. You find her, you'll find him."

* * *

Esposito taped a picture of an attractive redhead to the clean back of the otherwise crowded murder board. "Okay," he announced to the group, "this is our missing person. Catherine Jameson, age 26."

Ryan carefully studied the woman's pale skin and green eyes in the picture. "She looks *really* Irish. Is she...?"

"Absolutely no relation to the whiskey company," replied Esposito. "Her father did, however, did make a sizable investment in the '80s in a little company called Apple, and because of that our Ms. Jameson *still* hasn't worked a day in her life."

"How long has she been considered a missing person?" asked Castle.

"Two weeks," replied Esposito.

Beckett asked, "What did missing persons find out about the time before she disappeared? Did any of her girlfriends mention that she had started dating?"

Esposito shook his head. "Friends say she had been staying away from the dating scene for almost two months coming off a bad breakup."

Katya recognized the scenario immediately. "Sounds like Claudio's type, all right. Pretty little rich girl, lonely, who everyone underestimates. He pulls her away from her friends, seduces her, then turns her."

Beckett turned around to find the vampire standing behind her. "Any luck with those dental records? Did you recognize any of the aliases as possibly being Claudio?"

"A few," replied Katya. "The Yīzhì said she will run those files first and call you as soon as she knows if any of them are a match. It is very possible though, Lièrén, that the billing address of the match will belong to this Catherine woman and *not* to Claudio."

"Still," insisted Beckett, "we can run the alias and see what the name has attached to it. Who knows, it might get us a lead."

Ryan looked over his partner's shoulder at the file. "Here's something interesting, though...the friends all seem to have significant gaps in what they remember about that time."

"You think they might have had some of their interactions with Claudio erased?" asked Beckett.

"I'd count on it," replied Katya.

"All right then," said Beckett. "Ryan, Esposito, tomorrow, see if you can get something out of those blank spots in their memories. At the very least we should be able to find out what alias Claudio's been using. I want to go back to Catherine's place and see what Castle and I can find out in the *daytime*."

* * *

"What do you think was up with Ryan tonight?" asked Beckett.

The first rays of sunrise were just creeping over the East River horizon by the time Castle and Beckett had gotten back to her car. As Castle climbed into the passenger seat, he replied, "Do you remember when he first told us about Katya during the Freeman case?"

"Yeah..." said Beckett as she pulled down her seatbelt and started the engine. "What about it?"

"Remember how he said that part of the reason they broke up is because he didn't want to have sex in a coffin?"

Beckett nodded as the memory of the short conversation came back to her...then her eyes widened as she caught the connection between that conversation and the events of the previous night. "The third stage of the turning ritual..."

Castle nodded. "I think he was starting to play the 'what if...' game in his head...which can be a pretty overwhelming train of thought if one of the 'what ifs' is 'What if I had gone over there that night and let her turn me into a vampire?'"

"Yeah..." Beckett agreed, finding the point hard to argue. They sat in companionable silence for a while as they drove, the lack of early morning traffic making their return to the loft go much quicker than it otherwise would have. Finally, Beckett opened up about what was on *her* mind, "You ever play that game about us, Rick?"

"Sometimes," replied Castle. "It's hard not to, to be honest."

Beckett pulled into a parking spot and shut off the engine. "What if I had said yes that first time you asked me out on a date?"

"What if I hadn't gotten back together with Gina when you were dating Demming?" As Beckett raised a curious eyebrow at that question, Castle added, "Oh come on, I just did that to try and make you jealous...you knew that, right?" Beckett's shaking head pushed him into a whole new level of 'what ifs'. "Wow..."

"Yeah..." agreed Beckett, off on her own new train of thought. "You know," she admitted, "that day you brought Gina to the precinct, when...when I pulled you aside and told you to 'have a great summer'..."

"Yeah..." commented Castle, urging her on. _Where is she going with this?_

Beckett admitted, "That wasn't what I had pulled you over to tell you. At least, not originally." When she saw the dumbfounded expression on Castle's face, Beckett finished her point. "I was going to tell you that I had broken up with Demming and that I wanted to go with you to the Hamptons."

_Two years..._Castle leaned his head back against the headrest, stunned and guilt-ridden by her admission. _I lost *two years* with her because I was trying to make her *jealous*... _His thoughts spiraled into all the things they could have avoided in those two years. The secrets they kept from each other. The pain they had caused each other and their families. And of course, there was *Josh*...

Beckett grabbed one of Castle's hands and pulled it into her own, hoping her touch might shake him out of some of his obviously guilt-ridden thoughts. "Hey," she said, "Even if we might have taken a couple of wrong turns along the way, we got to where we wanted to be, didn't we?"

Castle let his thoughts float back to the present, letting the touch of his girlfriend's hands focus him; anchor him in the present where his muse, his partner, his beloved...his best friend was about to go upstairs with him to the life they shared.

Together.


	11. Chapter 11

The superintendent of Catherine Jameson's building was looking at them strangely. Castle knew, though, that if the positions were reversed, he'd probably be just as cautious. After all, they were the ones who had asked to be let into the apartment the previous day and then never came out again. "I don't know if I should let you two back in there," the super told them. His thick Yiddish accent made the man extremely hard to understand as he complained, "I mean, last time I let you in, the Sknym complained that there was screaming, and then no one saw you leave. How you can go in someplace and not be seen coming back out, I don't know..."

Beckett smiled as sweetly as she could while she studied what was visible of the man whose doorway they were standing in. She knew she could just force the situation because this was an active missing persons investigation, but a warrant would take time to get and put them under suspicion because of the orphan attack. "Mr..."

"Moischel, Irving Moischel."

"Mr. Moischel," Beckett repeated before continuing, "we think Ms. Jameson may have been abducted by a very dangerous man..."

"A bad man?" repeated Irving.

"Yes," Beckett agreed, "a very bad man."

"Is it that Italian guy?" asked Irving. "I never liked him...gave me the creeps that one..."

Beckett turned to her partner quickly, then turned back to the super. "We think it might be him, sir. Did you happen to catch his name?"

The older man looked at Beckett like she was growing a second head before his eyes. "Why would I get his name? He was evil! What would *I* need with the name of a evil man like that?!"

Beckett sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of her nose to try to stave off a headache. "Mr. Moischel, we believe this man has killed several people. Now, we believe that in Ms. Jameson's apartment we will be able to find out where this man might be. Will you help us, sir?"

"All right, all right!" exclaimed Irving, holding his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "Let me get my keys..."

A minute later, the gap in the door closed as Irving pulled the door closed, separated the two parts of the chain, then opened the door to let himself out. Irving then locked the door behind him and led the two Guardians to the elevator. He pushed the button after Castle and Beckett boarded, letting the door close for their journey. After a moment of awkward silence, Irving asked, "Why couldn't you find this information last night?"

"It was too dark to see anything in the apartment," Beckett replied, her patience wearing thinner by the minute.

"Oh," nodded Irving. "The electricity wasn't working in the apartment?"

"No, sir," Castle replied.

"Oh. I'll have to look into that," commented Irving.

The elevator beeped, and Irving shuffled out into the hallway, trailing Beckett and Castle behind him. The super fumbled with his keys in the lock, but finally got the door open. "Thank you so much for your help, Mr. Moischel," Castle told him as Beckett went ahead into the apartment.

"Should I...should I wait for you out here?" asked Irving loudly. "Since, y'know, since you had so much trouble leaving yesterday..."

"I think we'll be fine, Mr. Moischel," replied Castle.

"Oh. Well if you say so," Irving conceded. "Good luck, detectives."

Castle was tempted to correct the man, but thought better of it as he watched the older man shuffle back down the hallway. Focusing his thoughts on their present task, Castle entered the apartment to find Beckett rifling through a drawerful of papers. "So what are we looking for, Beckett?" he asked his partner.

"Well," replied Beckett, "We know Claudio came around enough to be noticed by people in the building...at least, according to our friend out there. So what we need now is some sort of physical evidence of his side of their relationship: a letter, a photo with his name on the back...something that ties the two of them together and gives us the name he's using."

Castle frowned, considering the issue. "I thought that vampires can't show up in photographs."

"That's mirrors, Castle." Beckett corrected him automatically, but stopped when she realized that she couldn't be sure either way. She shrugged off the thought for the moment, deciding instead to focus on their search.

While Beckett dove headlong into the details, Castle walked casually around the apartment, taking in the scene around him. The remains of the double doors separating the bedroom from the rest of the apartment were a chilling reminder of the attack they had survived the night before...as was the spray of blood..._Beckett's blood, _he remembered with a shudder...that he saw on the back wall of the living room. The lack of windows made the living room feel oddly isolated, despite being on the 25th floor. "I wonder if this is where they slept," he mused.

"Hmmm?" asked Beckett.

"After he turned her. Katya said that they would have needed to sleep for 24 hours after they turned her in a light-free room. This room is pretty light-free."

Beckett let herself smile for just a moment as she watched her boyfriend walk through the apartment. It was no surprise to her that he would be taking everything they had learned over the course of this case and try to weave the story of Claudio and Catherine together in his mind. It was one of the things she loved about him.

The glint of glass shining in the mid-afternoon sun was subtle. It wouldn't have been something noticeable at any other time of day. If Beckett had been at any other spot in the apartment she might have missed it. She knelt down and reached underneath the couch, pulling out the frame whose corner had just been barely visible.

Castle immediately took notice of what his partner was doing. "Beckett?" asked Castle, "What did you find?"

Beckett stood up, brushing stray pieces of glass off of the broken, gold-edged frame as she examined it. "I have a feeling this picture is going to tell us a few things," she said. Castle crossed over to where she was studying the picture as she continued, "first, that vampires *can* get their pictures taken, and second..." She flipped over the picture to show the inscription that declared the picture was taken one month earlier.

"Catherine and Claudio, apparently, started their relationship as Catherine and David."

* * *

Ryan and Esposito pushed their way through the crowds of tourists at Magnolia Bakery. "You're *sure* the girls we're looking for are here?" asked Ryan.

"So said Kate Monaghan's secretary," Esposito insisted, "he said that Kate and her girlfriends were going to a late lunch followed by a 'birthday celebration at Magnolia Bakery'."

The detectives stopped at the entrance to the seating area. It wasn't hard to figure out which group of girls were Kate and her friends. "It looks like a clip from 'Sex and the City'," commented Ryan.

Esposito went straight to the four young women in spring dresses crowded around a corner table. "Kate Monaghan?"

A woman in a strapless blue dress answered him, "Yes?"

The two detectives flashed their badges. "Detectives Ryan and Esposito, ma'am. We're investigating the disappearance of Catherine Jameson."

Kate looked up at them, confused. "You aren't the detectives I spoke to two weeks ago..."

"Yes ma'am," replied Ryan. "We believe that Catherine's disappearance may be connected to some...other crimes in the area." He opened his mind to the thoughts of the four women at the table as he asked them, "Was Catherine dating anyone at the time that she disappeared?"

Ryan caught a flash of an image, but it was so quick he couldn't make anything out. "No," said Kate, shaking her head. "We haven't seen her with anybody..."

As three other heads shook in agreement, Ryan quickly linked up with the mind of his partner. _They know, _he told Esposito, _they just don't realize it._

_Got it, _thought Esposito. He pulled out four business cards and handed one to each of the women, making sure that his fingers touched each woman's hand in turn as they took his card. Smiling, Esposito turned on the charm as he told them, "If you remember anything that might help us find her, please give me a call."

The four women were eating up Esposito's performance. Kate replied with a wide, flirtatious smile of her own, "Absolutely. I'll *definitely* call you."

Ryan and Esposito thanked the four women and left the bakery. Once on Columbus avenue, Esposito called his boss.

At Catherine Jameson's apartment, the senior detective answered her phone. "Beckett."

"It's Esposito. We just met Catherine Jameson's friends."

"Any luck?"

"*Maybe.* A couple of the girls remember dropping Claudio off after a long night of partying. The thing is, they dropped him off at some corner in Alphabet City."

Beckett's eyes lit up with the surprise and anticipation that always seemed to come with the leads coming together. "Did you say Alphabet City?"

"Yeah, boss. Why?"

"Meet us back at the precinct. And bring your swords. Tonight, we're going vampire hunting."

* * *

**Short chapter? Yeah, I know, sorry. I promise I'll make it up to you guys in the next one. :D  
**


	12. Chapter 12

The Guardians stood under the broken streetlight in front of a boarded up, burnt-out, abandoned brownstone. The other working streetlights further down the block cast long, lengthy shadows down the oddly quiet street...a street that felt too quiet to be in New York City. The scene didn't look that out-of-place in the context of a neighborhood that had been fraying around the edges for many, many years. And yet...it was the type of place that you didn't want to hang around for long. "You're *sure* this is the place, Beckett?" asked Ryan. "It *is* next door to a *church*..."

The hunter nodded. "When I first got the license plate of the Tesla I found out that the car was registered to a David Sangue at this address."

Castle agreed. "Not to mention that the energy of this place just feels...off. If I were looking for anyplace in the city to *find* a vampire, this is probably where I'd be tempted to start."

The weight of the sword brought back old memories for the vampire who fought alongside them. "Sangue is Italian for blood," Katya added, shifting her weight from right to left to get more comfortable with the sheath on her back. "It's him, all right. Claudio would have chosen this place *specifically* for that kind of twisted irony."

"Did you find him in Dr. Frank's records?" asked Castle.

"Da, honored Lièrén. The Yīzhì matched the bite marks, as well."

"So the case file will name him as our killer," commented Esposito. "But if this dude is as rich as you say he is, Katya, then why camp out in an abandoned building?"

"It is an illusion," Katya declared definitively. "Claudio would never live in a place so...filthy. He would consider it beneath him."

That was not news that Castle wanted to hear. "Claudio's a wizard?" he gasped out, "*And* a vampire?!"

"Nyet, honored Sìfāng," replied Katya. "The ancients possess enough power to perform simple illusion magic, nothing more."

Ryan asked, "So Castle should be able to counteract it?"

"Only one way to find out," shrugged Castle. He focused his attention on the wreckage of the building in front of him, and spoke with the quiet power of his gift. "If this place is illusion-sealed, may its fateful truth now be revealed."

The building stretched and shimmered as the raw power of Castle's magic overwhelmed the weaker illusion spell. The brownstone and the adjacent vacant lot slowly vanished, and in its place sat a 3-story complex in a breathtaking modern design of steel, concrete...and glass. Ryan let out a low whistle as he watched the form of the building take shape. "Lot of windows for a ancient vampire's lair, isn't it?"

Katya simply shrugged, "There are many window coatings that block out the full harmful spectrum of light nowadays. With enough money, *anything* is possible."

Castle recovered from breaking the illusion spell quickly, drawing in every bit of energy he could store from the air around him and casting shield spells for everyone in the group. Beckett pulled out the sword from the sheath on her back, and the rest of the group quickly followed suit. "Okay Katya," Beckett asked, "any tips on what we should expect in there?"

"Treat orphans as vampires; with them it's kill or be killed. However, what do you wish to do with the Thralls, honored ones?"

Castle shrugged, "I really have no say in this; technically they're still alive."

"If we kill Claudio, what will happen to the Thralls?" asked Esposito.

"Their condition will not change," replied Katya, "but the barrier between them and their pain will be gone."

"I vote we knock them out if possible and get Lanie in here after it's over; see if we can save some of them," declared Ryan.

"Agreed," echoed the other three Guardians.

Katya started to tentatively approach the building. "We may have lost the element of surprise already, honored ones," she said, pointing out the video camera above the entrance to the building.

The Guardians nodded, assuming a fully defensive stance: Beckett, Ryan and Esposito tightly grouped together with swords drawn, Castle crouched behind them.

Ryan opened a mind-link to the group. _Katya, does Claudio know about the Guardians?_

_I do not know, honored ones, _she replied, _expect him to test you either way. _Four heads nodded in response.

Katya opened the door for the group, leading them into a pure white hallway with an empty security desk. Beckett stretched her hearing down the corridors, and it wasn't hard for her to recognize what was coming. _Orphans! East and West!_

The group took up flanking positions: Ryan and Esposito to the west, Beckett and Katya to the east with Castle behind the security desk to clean up. The orphans barreled down the hallway almost blindly; a pack of four coming from each direction.

They were dust within seconds. _That was too easy, _projected Esposito.

_I agree, _added Katya, _that was the first test. We should expect greater challenges ahead._

_Let's stick together, then, _projected Castle. _Which way?_

The rest of the group tilted their heads to the west, so Castle followed them after casting spells to lock both the outside door and the doors to the stairwell behind them. Beckett led the group, stretching her hearing to look for possible dangers above them. The other three sword-wielded followed her, then Castle brought up the rear. _That's...odd, _projected Beckett.

_What is it? _asked Ryan.

_I hear...running water..._Beckett told them as she opened the door to the 2nd floor. A torrent of water came streaming out, pouring down the stairwell and onto every member of the group. Beckett peeked down the hallway and immediately saw the danger: thralls lined both sides of the hallway, standing in ankle-deep water and holding a long strand of thick copper wire between them. _Castle! Dry us and the hallway now!_

Castle cast the spell in less than a second, and not a moment too soon...as the Thralls twitched, convulsed, and then were electrocuted as live current was passed through the wire. The smell of burnt flesh was so overwhelming that Beckett was grateful for the ability to filter out the smell. The rest of the group, though, wasn't nearly so lucky; Castle, Ryan and Esposito coughed violently, gagging from the power of the smell alone. The wizard absorbed the energy from the live copper wire and used it to clear the air and refresh everyone's shields.

The group's rest time, though, was short lived. Beckett heard snarling almost as soon as the air was cleared. _Heads up, guys. Orphans on the way._

_How many? _asked Esposito.

_Too many, _insisted Castle. _I can already hear them..._The wizard pushed his way to the front of the group, drawing energy in from every source he could find that wasn't shielded. Castle's hands erupted with flame as the first orphans poured through the opposite stairwell. Once the hallway filled with charging Orphans, the wizard launched a massive ball of flame that consumed everything in its path.

Esposito let out a low whistle as he surveyed the damage. Out of the massive wave of enemies that had been opposing them, only some blistering paint and the inert copper wire remained. _Bro, _he complimented, chuckling through the mind-link, _remind me to never get on your bad side..._

The hand clapping of a single being caught the group's attention. _I don't hear a heartbeat, guys..._announced Beckett.

A flash of red, curly hair confirmed Beckett's suspicions of who their next opponent was to be. _Be careful, everyone, _Katya warned the group, _newborns are awash in human blood, which makes them the strongest and fastest among our kind._

Four heads nodded quickly as the sword-wielders pushed to the front of the group, allowing Castle to stay behind them and maintain their shields. Catherine Jameson did not attack right away, though. Instead, she chose to tease her opponents. "I must say, I am impressed," she complimented sarcastically. "You have a certain...level of skill I would not have expected from humans." Catherine stopped to sniff the air, latching onto a scent that seemed to surprise her. "Although you seem to have a betrayer among you, which must be why you've been so adept at killing our kind to this point..."

Katya let out a low rumble of a growl that sent a chill through the Guardians surrounding her. "You should not get so quickly ahead of yourself, *infant*..." she threatened.

"Why?" laughed Catherine, amused. "Because you have well-trained human dogs to fight your battles for you? I have risen above their kind. Now they are simply food: first for my amusement, then for my enjoyment..."

_This is a *very* good sign, honored ones, _Katya projected through the mind-link as Catherine taunted them, _this arrogance means that neither she *nor* her sire know of who you are._ Out loud, Katya went in for the verbal kill. "Newborn," she teased, "are you *really* that stupid, or did you just drink too many blonds?"

Catherine went into a blind rage and flew down the charred corridor, relying on her strength, speed and bite to overcome three Guardians with swords.

It wasn't even close.

Beckett sidestepped Catherine's attack by running along the wall of the corridor; then wheeled around and chased down her prospective attacker, decapitating her from behind before she ever knew what hit her.

The rest of the group collapsed in coughing fits as the dust that was left of Catherine Jameson flew at them. Castle cleared the air; but the damage was done. Only Beckett and Katya were breathing clearly; Ryan, Castle and Esposito pushed themselves up along the charred walls, coughing up dust particles all the way. "Where's Lanie when you need her..." Esposito groaned.

Everyone chuckled at that comment, which helped both Castle and Esposito to the point of breathing clearly...or at least, breathing without coughing. _Everyone ok? _asked Ryan. Four heads nodded.

Katya led the group up to the building's third floor. This floor was open; cleared out to create a giant luxury loft apartment for its sole occupant. That sole occupant poured himself a glass of gently heated human blood as Katya and the Guardians entered the loft. The vampire never let her guard down, which caused her new friends to follow her lead. "Hello, *Claudio*," Katya spat out in bitter greeting.

"Good evening, Ekaterina. It's so lovely to see you!" Claudio returned the greeting with a warm and cheerful tone that he deliberately designed to get on Katya's nerves. "And you brought drinks! How very considerate."

"They're not here for you to drink, Claudio," growled Katya. Then, remembering who they were talking about, she taunted him, "Although feel free to try it...*if* you can..."

Claudio raised an eyebrow at the remark. He swirled his drink and took another long sip before answering. "*If* I can? Such an interesting challenge, Ekaterina..."

_Kevin, cut the link, quick! _Katya exclaimed into the mind-link. Ryan did as she asked.

Claudio continued, "Now why would drinking from these humans be a challenge, Ekaterina?" The ancient vampire reached into the mind of the younger vampire in front of him. Claudio's eyes widened as he contemplated the information he found there. "No..." he exclaimed, clearly disbelieving what Katya knew to be true.

Katya's response was casual, but spoke of clear conviction. "We got through every one of your defenses, Claudio, and Catherine...well, let's just say that a couple of them are still coughing up what's left of your offspring. So try to drink from one of them...if you'd like. But if you've read my thoughts like I think you have, then you *know* that that drink would be the last one you would ever take."

The Guardians took the time to silently circle around the ancient vampire as Katya was talking to him. Claudio looked around and realized that he was surrounded. If he tried to run, he would be tested either by a swordsman fully capable of removing his head from his neck or by a wizard who, if the flaming hands were any indication, could blast him into ash with barely a thought. None of these seemed like options that were conducive to his future existence. Even after 2000 years. "What do you want from me, Ekaterina?"

"Simple," Katya replied. "Walk away."

Claudio raised a skeptical eyebrow at the simplicity of Katya's demand. "That's it? Just...walk away?"

Katya nodded. "Da, Claudio. Walk. Away. That way when you get together with your obnoxious ancient friends and they want to know how things went during your time in New York, you'll have to tell them." She walked slowly as she continued, moving closer to her prey with every step...with every word..."You'll have to tell them why you walked out of New York with no Thralls, no orphans, and no sire. You'll have to tell them why you walked out of New York with only the clothes on your back. And you'll have to tell them that if any of them are stupid enough to step inside this city to see for themselves, then They. Won't. Be. So. Lucky."

Claudio disappeared from under Katya's withering gaze. A heartbeat later five exact copies of the ancient appeared behind Katya and the Guardians, each copy sliding a smooth, cold hand underneath the chin of their targets. The Claudio behind Katya purred, "And what, darling, will happen if I decide that I don't *want* to walk away?"

"Wrong answer," replied Katya. Castle reached behind him and lit his Claudio on fire. Ryan and Esposito grabbed onto the heads of their Claudios and flipped the clones over their shoulders, decapitating them as they lie splayed out and dumbstruck on the ground. Katya simply ignored her Claudio clone, knowing that the illusion behind her has no power over her.

And Beckett...Beckett simply let the real Claudio bite her.

The ancient staggered back after one long swallow of the blood from Beckett's neck. Dizzy and sweating for the first time in millennia, Claudio stared, awestruck, at Beckett. "By the gods," he gasped out, "what are you?"

Even as she pressed down on her neck to try to stop the flow of blood, Beckett smiled when she saw the ancient's shirt spontaneously combust. "What am I?" she told him. "Last call, jackass."

No one would have been capable of hearing anyone else talk over the dying screams of the ancient, so Ryan opened a mind-link to ask the one burning question on his mind. _Katya, how did Claudio not know about Guardian blood before he died? I thought he read your thoughts?_

Katya relaxed into a wicked, fang-bearing grin. _I may have...repressed...a few memories..._

* * *

**Hopefully this makes up for the last chapter being so short. :) As always, please let me know what you think! And well, one more chapter left in this story before I move on, so if there's anything from this story you have questions about, now's the time to post 'em! **


	13. Epilogue

_One thing's for sure, _Lanie thought with a smile, _this ain't your normal crime scene. _With no actual corpses to be looked after, Castle brought Lanie to Claudio's Alphabet city 'lair' for one purpose: to take care of her best friend.

Who, to Lanie's disappointment (and slight amusement), seemed to have developed a fondness for getting bitten by vampires.

Setting aside the thoughts of what that said about some of her best friend's ex-boyfriends, Lanie lifted her hand away from Beckett's neck to reveal fully healed skin underneath. "You're all set," said Lanie.

"Thanks, Lanie," said Beckett with a smile.

"I just have one question, honey..."

"Shoot," replied Beckett.

"What the *hell* were you thinking?!"

Beckett's eyes widened. "Excuse me? You think I *wanted* Claudio to bite me?"

"Well you got yourself bit by two different vampires in *two days*, girlfriend. I'm just doin' the math..."

"Perhaps I can be of some assistance, honored ones?" Katya knelt down between the two women.

Beckett looked over at Katya, then back at her best friend, and finally leaned back against the wall, closing her eyes and letting out a weary sigh. "It's all right, Katya. I was just informing the Yīzhì that I have *no* idea why two different vampires chose to attack me two days in a row..."

Lanie interrupted her friend to get her own point across. "And I was just telling Detective Beckett here that two different *vampires* attacking her in two days *cannot* be a coincidence..."

Katya raised a hand to silence Beckett and Lanie, cutting off the argument before the two had a chance to repeat it. Turning to Beckett, Katya declared, "The Yīzhì is right, honored Lièrén. There is a reason both Claudio and the orphan chose you as the target of their attacks."

Beckett looked at the vampire quizzically. "What is it? My perfume?"

"Of a sort," replied Katya, chuckling. She helped Beckett to her feet and led her to a spot where Claudio had set up a CCTV system and monitor to substitute for a mirror. Looking into the monitor, Katya instructed Beckett, "Open your sight to focus on the air surrounding you as you look at the monitor. What do you see?"

"Not much," Beckett admitted with a sigh. "Kind of a blue-green swirl, nothing specific."

Katya smiled. "That is fine for now, honored one. Now close your eyes, and clear your mind." When she saw that Beckett had complied, Katya instructed her, "Keep your eyes closed and picture the aura of the Sìfāng in your mind's eye. Nod when you have this picture clearly."

When Beckett nodded, Katya instructed her, "Now, honored one, open your eyes and look into the monitor.

Beckett did as she was told...and gasped in surprise at the results. "The aura around me, it's...it looks like Castle's now."

Katya nodded. "The aura of the Lièrén is hard to peg because you have the power to change it as the need arises. The reason the vampires you encountered chose you as a potential target is because out of all the Guardians, you are the only one whose aura looked closest to human...at least, on the basic level. I thought you were leaving your aura that way deliberately, to use yourself as bait. If I was mistaken, I apologize."

Beckett turned toward Lanie to see if her friend got the point...which she had. "Hey, how could I have know that you actually had an invisible 'bite me' sign?"

"Oooh," purred a male voice suggestively behind them. "You have an invisible 'bite me' sign? Where?"

The voice was one that Beckett would know anywhere. "Well, Castle," she replied with her own level of flirtatiousness, "If you'll help me get cleaned up, I *might* let you look for it at home later..."

Castle waved his hand with a stereotypically wizard-like flourish, and Beckett's skin and clothes were immediately free of the blood stains that she had been covered with a second earlier. For once at a 'crime scene' where they were among only friends, Castle threw the 'rulebook' out the window, snaking an arm around his girlfriend's waist and planting kisses on every inch of her exposed neck that he could find. "Is it there?" he teased. "Or there? Hmmm...what about...there..."

* * *

Katya turned away from her new friends, smiling at their affectionate flirting and teasing of each other. It brought back fond memories of the last man she had been able to spend time with in that way...a man who was now looking at her with an expression of curiosity, mixed with concern, mixed with...was that anger?

"Katya?" asked Ryan.

"Yes, Kevin?"

"Why did you ask me to close the link between us earlier? Did it have to do with the memories you said you repressed?"

Katya nodded with a sigh. "You still have so much to learn, Kevin. I *knew* that Claudio was about to read my thoughts on a hunt for information. So I blocked all my memories of your predecessors, your connection to them, and *especially* the power that your blood has over our kind. I *wanted* him to try and bite one of you...mostly because I knew that would be the most painful way for him to die. But I also knew that you do not have the skill to repress such thoughts in battle yet. If Claudio tapped into all of our minds linked together at once, then we would have lost our greatest advantage."

Ryan relaxed almost immediately, understanding why Katya did what she felt she *had* to do for them to defeat the ancient. Only his curiosity remained unsatisfied. "So how do I block someone from reading memories I don't want them to read?"

"The easiest way to do it is to focus on a memory so potent, so easy to call up in your mind that it blocks out all thoughts of anything else. For now, that might be your wife, perhaps, or a particularly memorable moment at the precinct. Eventually, though, you should rely less on a memory for this and more on your imagination..."

Ryan caught on quickly. "Because if I can focus on a vivid memory that isn't even real, then I can pass misinformation on to my opponent?" As Katya nodded in approval of his answer, Ryan could only respond with a sad smile. _Makes me wish I had another telepath around to practice on..._

Katya had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. _Kevin, we've been through this..._

_I know, I know,_ Ryan conceded with a teasing smile. He reached up and caressed her cheek with his hand, letting his mind bathe in the memories of their past together one last time. _Where will you go?_

_I do not know,_ Katya replied with a shrug. _Find someplace where I can make a difference and set up shop there, I guess._ She squeezed Ryan's hand gently, looking for reassurance in his touch, his smell, his voice in her mind...anywhere she could get it. Accepting the truth with a sad smile, Katya looked into her beloved's eyes for what she was starting to believe would be the last time. _At least I can leave confident that New York is in the best of hands..._

* * *

Having no more reasons to stay at the scene, the Guardians all teleported back to the Loft, which was a far safer neighborhood from which to say their goodnights and return to their homes. Katya, though, opted to walk in the cool late-night air, having already said her goodbyes to the member of this generation of Guardians that she knew she was going to truly miss.

The vampire was barely out of Claudio's now-vacant complex, though, when she heard a voice call out to her in the darkness. "Doctor Petrovich?"

Even with the gift of night vision, the vampire was having trouble making out the features of the being standing in the dark alley across the street from her position. Still, the heartbeat told her the being in question was human...and nervous, judging from the rapid speed and pounding intensity of the sound. "Do I know you?" she asked the figure in shadow.

"Not yet," the woman replied, "but I am hoping that you will be willing to help me regardless." She stepped out of the late night shadows and under the light to show that she was a young Pakistani woman wearing a long, shapeless black dress with matching hijab.

"My name is Nazia Kundun, Doctor. And it is always an pleasure to meet a fellow friend of the Guardians."

* * *

The next morning, the four Guardians of the 12th precinct stumbled into the bullpen, sleep-deprived and desperate for coffee. "Ugh," groaned Esposito as he collapsed into his chair, holding his head in his hands. "Can someone tell me *why* we got called in here so early today?"

"I can," replied Gates behind him. Talking to the group, she then asked all of them, "Will the four of you step into my office, please?"

Castle, Beckett, Ryan and Esposito filed quietly into their boss' office; Esposito closing the door behind him. As the four Guardians found places to sit, Gates began, "I got a call from the sergeant in charge of the night shift patrol officers. Last night one of his men came up to him at the end of his shift and *asked* for a psych evaluation. Apparently, this poor officer walks a beat in Alphabet City, and he *swears* last night a brand new 3-story office building just showed up out of nowhere..."

The guilty looks on the four Guardians in front of her was all the evidence Gates needed. "Uh huh," she commented, "I had a feeling that was you guys..."

"But the building had been there for weeks!" Castle countered defensively. "All I did was kill the illusion spell surrounding it..."

Gates stopped Castle with a raised hand. "Castle, I don't need *those* kind of details. I'm assuming this has something to do with the Midtown South case?" As four heads nodded in agreement, Gates recalled something that Beckett had told her the previous day. "The Tesla's DMV registration..."

"Wasn't as much of a dead end as I thought, sir," Beckett went ahead and answered her captain's unspoken question.

"So the owner of our Tesla...?"

"Was our killer, sir," replied Beckett.

"I see," Gates nodded absently, her mind balancing out the levels of information she needed to know with the information that she knew she'd probably be happier *not* knowing. "Can I assume the fact that you paid this man a visit last night means that he will no longer be bothering the people of this city?"

"Or anywhere else, sir," chimed in Ryan as four heads nodded in reply to the captain's question.

Gates allowed herself a small smile as she mentally closed the book on this case and all the questions that went along with it. "You've done good work here, everyone," she announced to the group. The captain's eyes then locked on Castle's as she added, "*All* of you."

The reaction had been small and entirely subtle, but the gasp of surprise Gates watched her comments elicit from the troublemaking writer somehow satisfied her to no end. Focusing her attention back to the entire group, she announced, "I know you've all been pulling a lot of night shifts lately, so take the rest of the day off. Go home and get some rest. You've earned it."

The four heads in front of her nodded with a mumbled chorus of "Thank you, sir..." As they filtered out of the room, though, Gates stopped the last of the Guardians just as he was about to leave. "Ah ah ah, just where do you think *you're* going, Castle?"

Castle turned back to his boss, confused. "Sir? But...but you just said..."

"That was for the supporting members of your team, Castle. *You*, however, are not done with this case yet." Gates led the writer back to his desk, where a manila sat patiently waiting for him.

Castle opened the folder on his desk. In it were several police forms...that he started to slowly recognize as the paperwork that Beckett had to fill out after every murder she investigated. Gates leaned in to Castle with a wicked grin on her face. "Your case, your paperwork, Mr. Castle. I want these completed and on my desk by the end of the day."

Yep, the writer had finally proved he belonged, all right. Gates chuckled as she walked back to her office, listening to Castle mumble to something about having passed a "final test".

In the bullpen, NYPD consultant Richard Castle sat down at his desk, pulled a pen out of his pocket, conjured up a steaming hot double espresso (which he proceeded to drink like it had been on his desk all along) and went to work.

* * *

**That's it, folks! Don't forget to leave your comments down below. I *always* love to hear from people who have been reading this series. It's your comments (good, bad or otherwise), questions, etc. that motivate me to keep writing for these lovely characters. **

**This series *will* continue with the next story, Contagion. Y'all know how I am when it comes to this series, so let's just say that the first chapter of Contagion will (most likely) be posted sometime this week. :D **

**I will let you guys that this next story will focus mostly on Lanie, and while the other Guardians will still be there fighting alongside them, Contagion will mostly be *heavy* on the Esplainie and *heavy* on angst. Don't say I didn't warn you. *g***


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